COP FACING NYPD TRIAL
Accused of beating Floyd protester with baton
An NYPD inspector was brought before a department trial judge Thursday accused of repeatedly striking a bicyclist with a baton during a 2020 George Floyd protest — and it wasn’t the first time he’d been brought before a department disciplinary tribunal, the Daily News has learned.
In 2019, a department trial judge tried and ultimately cleared Inspector Jesse Lance for barging into a Brooklyn apartment and accosting a family following a shooting outside their building, according to NYPD records.
Lance, who is currently assigned to the Brooklyn Housing Bureau, was in hot water again a year later, this time accused of repeatedly striking bicyclist Kedwin Payamps as he pedaled past a George Floyd protest in Clinton Hill on June 4, 2020.
“What did I do? What did I do?” Payamps screamed to Lance as he struck him by his backpack at least two times, according to a video of the assault, which was featured in a New York Times article on NYPD abuse and misconduct during the George Floyd protests that summer.
The Civilian Complaint Review Board, which is prosecuting the case, accuses Lance of improper force and making misleading statements during interviews after he claimed he couldn’t identify himself in the chaotic videos. Lance did admit to being there and identified himself in still photos taken at the same protest.
Police Officer Corey Johnson, who was working with Lance at the time, is also facing an accusation of using improper force for shoving journalist Nicholas Pinto onto the ground during the same protest. Pinto, a co-founder of the news website Hellgate, was covering the protest for WNYC radio when he was accosted.
If NYPD Assistant Deputy Commissioner of Trials Jeff Adler finds the officers guilty of the charges, the CCRB is asking that Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell dock Lance 30 vacation days and put him on dismissal probation. That means he could be fired if he is accused of misconduct within a year of the verdict. They want Johnson to be docked 25 vacation days and also be put on dismissal probation.
Testifying at the departmental trial, Payamps, 31, said he had just left his mother’s house when he came upon the protest on Washington Ave. near Fulton St. about two hours after an 8 p.m. curfew had been put in place.
Nearly 200 people were marching through the streets of Clinton Hill when cops began moving people out of the street.
“There was a lot of activity. A lot of profanity,” Payamps recalled. “I saw police pushing and cursing at everyone.”
A moment later, an officer in a “white shirt” struck his back tire with a baton in an attempt to move him along, he said.
“Then he struck my back with the baton, all across my back,” he recalled. “He was shouting at me these profanities and I was asking him, ‘What did I do?’ ”
CCRB investigators managed to identify Lance as Payamps’ attacker after collecting other video and photos of the protest.
Payamps said he was thrown against a nearby fence and then pulled to the ground, where other officers struck him in the legs with batons.
“They were putting their knee on my back, yelling at me ‘You f——- up,’ ” recalled Payamps, who is currently suing the city over the clash.
“It’s going to be a long night for you,” one cop told him before handcuffing him and bringing him to a local precinct, where he was charged with violating curfew. The charge was dismissed about a month later.
“This is the night Lance decided to disregard this man’s basic human rights,” CCRB prosecutor Amanda Rodriguez said in her opening statement.
Lance’s attorney Lou La Pietra said the inspector struck Payamps’ backpack with his nightstick and never injured the bicyclist, who only complained to doctors about pain to his legs.
The CCRB’s own investigative report claims that Lance struck the bicyclist “in the backpack area,” with the watchdog agency later alleging Payamps was struck in the neck and shoulder area, La Pietra said.
Payamps later complained of suffering pain to the shoulder area, too, but the injuries do not align with what was alleged, La Pietra argued.
“Someone gets smacked with a baton in the neck, it’s not going to leave just a little bruise,” La Pietra said, holding up a nightstick like the one Lance used during the protest. “There is no evidence that [Lance’s] baton struck any part of his body. ”
Lance and Johnson were expected to testify when the case resumes on March 2.
Following a New Year’s Eve 2016 shooting at the Seth Lowe Houses in Brownsville, Lance and Lt. Omar Birchwood were accused of ordering their cops to unlawfully barge into an apartment, claiming that the shooting gave them the right to go inside. At the time, Lance and Birchwood said they were concerned about drug use and drinking in the apartment and wanted to check on children inside.
The CCRB prosecuted Lance and Birchwood for conducting an improper search, but the trial judge determined that the search was within NYPD guidelines.