New suit: Air files on cop trouble

A COURT RULING allowing the NYPD to keep under wraps the disciplinary records of the cop who put Eric Garner in a fatal chokehold in 2014 shouldn’t be applied to a broader lawsuit seeking the disclosure of NYPD disciplinary summaries, according to a new court filing.

The Legal Aid Society and law firm Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton are suing the NYPD to release officer disciplinary summaries that the department now claims are no longer public.

The group is arguing in documents filed Friday afternoon that last month’s ruling by a fivejudge panel to overturn a lower court decision ordering the NYPD to turn over Civilian Complaint Review Board summaries of cases involving Officer Daniel Pantaleo (photo) should have no influence on the department making other disciplinary records public.

The basic outcomes of disciplinary cases had been available to reporters for decades.

But in May 2016, the NYPD decided those documents should no longer be available under Section 50-a of the New York State Civil Rights Law.

The new paperwork argues that the court’s decision to keep Pantaleo’s files secret in order to protect his safety doesn’t apply to others — as those files were available for decades.

Police Commissioner James O’Neill and other top NYPD brass have said they back releasing the records — if the state Legislature changes the law.

Late last month, a CCRB employee leaked a list of Pantaleo’s civilian complaints to the website ThinkProgress.

The record showed Pantaleo had four substantiated civilian complaints before the Garner encounter and had been docked just two vacation days. The CCRB leaker was subsequently fired.