OFT-SUED COP GETS MERE SLAP ON WRIST FOR ABUSE
NYPD says ‘Bullethead’ just needs ‘instructions’
A Brooklyn police sergeant with a long history of alleged wrongful arrests and civil rights abuses has been ordered to get new “instructions” — what amounts to a supervisor’s warning — after an abuse of authority complaint against him was substantiated, the Daily News has learned.
The Civilian Complaint Review Board recently backed up the claim that NYPD Sgt. David Grieco abused his authority by telling Tray Stroman, 27, he would punch him out during an April 2018 police raid of a Brownsville apartment where Stroman was crashing.
Stroman and the tenant, 51-yearold Evelyn Gonzalez, sued and settled for $38,000, citing the threat.
Stroman, Gonzalez, and her son, who was not part of the suit, were arrested for marijuana joints found in the son’s room. The charges against the son were later dropped and the charges against Gonzalez and Stroman were never prosecuted.
But Joel Berger, the lawyer for Gonzalez and Stroman, said the CCRB’s ruling did not address the most obvious abuse of authority — that Stroman and Gonzalez were held by cops for 18 hours after their arrest even though they were eligible for a desk appearance ticket.
“It’s indisputable they were held for 18 hours,” Berger said. “It’s false imprisonment for 18 hours.”
The CCRB would not address that allegation. But a police source said officers do have discretion when issuing summonses.
The board did recommend that Grieco, 48, who joined the NYPD nearly 15 years ago, undergo formalized training. But the NYPD overruled that decision and instead ordered he get “instructions” — a warning from his commanding officer at the 67th Precinct, where he now works.
The decision was nothing more than a “ridiculous” slap on the wrist, Berger said.
“In light of this man’s horrible record, to recommend instructions is ridiculous,” Berger said. “He should be thrown off the force.”
The NYPD defended the decision, calling instructions a better way to “explicitly educate and advise the sergeant regarding this type of conduct when interacting with the public.”
It’s not entirely clear how often Grieco has been disciplined because NYPD personnel records are shrouded in secrecy, protected by the department’s interpretation of
Section 50-a of the state Civil Rights Law, which places limits on releasing personnel records.
The News has been able to piece together some of his history from court records and police sources .
Grieco — a burly cop nicknamed “Bullethead” — has been disciplined several times, usually for low-level offenses such as failure to make a log book entry after taking law enforcement action, an infraction that cost him a handful of vacation days.
But he’s been named in nearly three dozen lawsuits alleging wrongful arrest or other civil rights abuses. The city has paid more than $500,000 to settle 17 suits and at least a dozen more are pending. One ended with a verdict in his favor and another was dismissed.
His name was recently added to an amended lawsuit alleging that for 16 hours in 2017 police held Rolinda Walls, then 54, in her Brownsville apartment, along with her daughter and granddaughter. Police were looking for Walls’ other adult daughter for reasons that are unclear, but she wasn’t home.
More recently, a suit filed Oct. 31 alleges that a number of officers, including Grieco, arrested Jayquan Johnson for trespassing in an East Flatbush building in August 2018.
Johnson, who said he had been visiting his girlfriend, was never prosecuted. He could not be reached for comment, and his lawyer didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The Legal Aid Society, which has represented a number of people who sued Grieco and also tracks lawsuits filed against cops, says it’s astounding he has been promoted twice since working at the 75th Precinct and is still allowed to work the streets.
“Sgt. David Grieco is the epitome of a bad cop who uses his badge and gun to violate New Yorkers’ constitutional rights on almost a daily basis,” said Molly Griffard, a Legal Aid fellow who works on the CAPstat initiative tracking lawsuits against cops. “He should be fired, plain and simple.
“His continued employment with the NYPD underscores the divide between the department and overpoliced communities, and how officers like Grieco perpetuate this
Sgt. David Grieco is the epitome of a bad cop who uses his badge and gun to violate New Yorkers’ constitutional rights on almost a daily basis. MOLLY GRIFFARD
problem.”
Neither the city’s Law Department nor the NYPD would answer questions about the pending suits.
The NYPD did note that Grieco “has made and supervised hundreds of arrests that did not lead to any civil litigation, but in fact helped keep people in New York City safe from drugs and violence.”
A source said the department has made a calculated decision to look past allegations of raids without warrants and arrests that prosecutors refuse to take to court and are sticking with Grieco because he often gets guns off the street.
“The school of thought is, ‘He’s a productive officer,’” the source said. “And they’re protecting him.”