Huffington Post No criminal charges will be filed against an NYPD officer accused of violently striking a New York state Supreme Court justice in the throat in an unprovoked attack earlier this summer, the Queens district attorney said Wednesday.
Judge Thomas Raffaele, who reported the alleged assault, called the DA’s decision “shocking” and accused the NYPD officers involved of lying to cover up their misconduct.
“For this to happen, for me to be attacked by a cop — and for the cops to do this huge cover up — it’s really changing my view of the force,” Raffaele told The Huffington Post.
Raffaele said he is strongly considering filing a lawsuit against the police department over the alleged attack. “It may be that there is no other option,” he said.
In a statement, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said his office lacked the evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer “intentionally and unjustifiably” struck the judge.
“We find that there is insufficient evidence of criminality to support a charge that the police officer acted with intent to injure,” Brown said.
The alleged assault on the judge happened as police officers were restraining a man who was reportedly chasing people with a metal pipe on a Queens street around midnight in early June.
Raffaele said he came upon two officers restraining the man and called 911 to request that more police respond to the scene, where a large group of people was gathering. The officer allegedly repeatedly drove his knee into the detained man’s back, the judge said, causing some in the crowd to shout at him.
At that point, Raffaele said the officer flew into a rage, began screaming obscenities and randomly attacked several people in the crowd. He said he was hit in the throat with a military-style open hand chop that sent him to the hospital for the night.
“This was not some little punch or shove,” he said. “It was an all-out military blow to my larynx.”
Raffaele said that supervisory officers at the scene refused to take his complaint of being assaulted.
In June, the NYPD said that its internal affairs bureau was working with the Queens DA’s office to investigate the judge’s claims.
That investigation cleared the officers involved in the episode of criminal conduct.
“After an extensive and thorough investigation of the facts and circumstances of the matter -– that included multiple witness interviews and reviews of police reports and medical records -– my office has concluded that the facts do not warrant the filing of criminal charges,” Brown said.
The matter will now be referred to the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board and to the NYPD “for any possible violation” of NYPD rules or procedures.
Brown said that his office had “no opinion” as to whether any administrative or procedural violations took place.
Raffaele criticized the DA’s investigation as half-hearted and said that witnesses to the incident were not interviewed for nearly two months, and only after he complained about the slow progress of the probe.
He also accused several NYPD officers of lying about the events by saying that he had behaved “aggressively” toward them.
“I was really amazed that two or three of them lied about it,” he said. “It’s really damaging to the respect that I’ve had all my life for the police department.”
“No criminal charges will be filed against an NYPD officer accused of violently striking a New York state Supreme Court justice in the throat in an unprovoked attack earlier this summer, the Queens district attorney said Wednesday.”
I’m getting the feeling that the reason why all of these policemen are not getting put in prison or doing jail time is because the elite are paying the judges to let them go because the elite needs EVERY single member of law enforcement available when the time comes for martial law to be officially put into effect in October (like the whistleblowers have been saying about the police needing to be ready to takeover the streets in October) It’s all hands on deck for the elite.
This would make perfect sense. So don’t expect any police officer to get jailed. Maybe a month or a few weeks paid suspension but that’s it. They can murder someone and be put back on the streets and ready for takeover the next day. It’s all hands on deck for the elite because they know we will not give up without a fight.
Awww….(Sniff, sniff) No good Bloomberg articles today, Angel? I’m sad. lol I need my daily dose of PEE WEE’S PLAYHOUSE!!!
With the exception of telling the press that he “did NOT Skinny Dip in The Sea of Galilee,” he’s been pretty quiet this week. (so far)
NYPD’s been all over the local news, though. Besides the verdict in the case involving the judge, one got collared for drugging and date raping a 17 year old and another pulled a Barney Fife (gun went off “while he was putting it in his holster” and shot the homeless guy they had in cuffs, on the ground, in the leg.)
“another pulled a Barney Fife (gun went off “while he was putting it in his holster” and shot the homeless guy they had in cuffs, on the ground, in the leg.)”
I feel bad for the homeless guy, but I can’t help laughing about how the gun went off itself. Talk about a dumb, clumsy cop. That is, if it really happened that way. With the NYPD, it probably didn’t, but if it did, it makes me laugh because I know it probably made the cop look like a stupid fool which would always put a smile on my face any day.
He swears he didn’t have his finger on the trigger and witnesses said that he was freaking out trying to help the guy and stop the bleeding. He’s been put on desk duty. I feel sorry for the homeless guy also, but I can’t help laughing at the cop. I can’t help seeing Barney Fife’s reaction every time his gun went off.
Hahaha! Awesome.
I rarely see officers held accountable for anything. Just a paid vacation on taxpayer dime. This fascist country is disgusting to me anymore. We are f’d either way .
Screw you, Judge! You’ve been aiding and abetting these criminals with badges for the entirety of your career, allowing them to lie with impunity, and now you want sympathy because you got caught up in the blowback you helped create? LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL I hope they find you in chambers with a taser shoved up your worthless ass sideways, you fascist enabler.
How can you have an entity that is considered honorable in their court against a judge that is considered honorable in their court? That is the ultimate controversy. This is why cops are not taken down for criminal action. If a cop, or cops are exposed as being dishonorable, the system fails as it relies on the deception of honorability. A cops honorability is never questioned in a court.
Ever hear a judge walk into his own courtroom and claim, “I the honorable Judge so and so am presiding…”? No, because they aren’t honorable in the least, or under oath, or presiding over anything. But, if you get some police type patsy to claim such in a perjures way, and no one questions it, then whammo! everyone assumes honorable judge and the court (government) presumes absolute authority.
Most cops aren’t rocket scientists, lets face it. They do what they are told like robots on an assembly line. Their jobs are mundane to profane, with a salt shaker of terror once in a while. It’s not a job most could do. But the men and women that do it are hand picked and carefully groomed to do what the higher up agents require. Ultimately this ends up targeting the very people paying their salary with their labor value, and rewards the dead corporations that are raping the living people in the first place.
If you are a cop and reading this, then God help you, get a set, and find a job that is honorable. Stop acting like you are preventing crime, or have ever prevented crime outside what your corporate masters have created as crime. You are a janitor of the dregs of society. Live with that.
Obviously not even State Supreme Court justices’ are immune to police brutality anymore.
Justice is served.
We know #1- some one scared that judge
$10.00 says this judge was telling department personnel who did 9-11.
$20.00 says he doesn’t file that lawsuit.
Or if he does, he’ll drop it.