Two NYPD police officers were temporarily stripped of their guns and shields over a caught-on-camera arrest where they were recorded punching the son of a retired NYPD detective after the boy’s father reached out to department brass, the Daily News has learned.
Police Officers Brian Guzman and Anthony Riccardi were pulled from the streets and are potentially facing disciplinary charges following the Dec. 7 arrest of Harold Thomas, who told The News he was dozing in the back seat when the officers pulled him and his friends over in Astoria, Queens.
Thomas’ father, retired first-grade NYPD Detective Harold Thomas texted the video of the arrest to Mayor Adams, former Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, and other high-ranking NYPD officers within hours of his son’s arrest.
The next day, the Internal Affairs Bureau put the two cops on modified assignment — a move NYPD union officials are calling a complete overreaction.
“We believe the NYPD overreacted by placing these police officers on modified assignment, especially when they were engaged in exactly the type of proactive enforcement that NYPD management has made a priority,” Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry said.
Disciplinary charges haven’t been filed against the officers as IAB continues its investigation. Cops are not automatically pulled from the streets if a complaint is filed against them. Traditionally, IAB has to get corroborating evidence and be prepared to file charges to warrant such a step.
“The incident is under internal review,” an NYPD spokesman said Friday.
Thomas and his three friends, all Black city and state employees, were returning home from a birthday celebration at a nearby club in a rented Mercedes-Maybach when they were pulled over near the corner of 25th Ave. and 49th St. at about 3 a.m. according to a notice of claim filed over the incident.
The officers, who were in two unmarked police vehicles, told the driver that the tint on the Maybach’s windows was too dark, the claim says. The officers then ordered everyone out of the car and demanded to see their IDs.
Thomas, 37, told the News in an interview he was oblivious to all of this.
“I was asleep in the back seat,” Thomas, who works in the facilities department for the city’s Department of Probation, told the Daily News. “I closed my eyes, and the next thing I remember was there was a flashlight in my face and I was being told to get the f— out of the car. But I had just woken up and had no idea what was taking place.”
Thomas said one officer demanded to see his ID. Motorists have to show ID when pulled over by police, but cops in most cases can’t demand passengers for their ID unless they’re suspected of committing a crime.
“I asked them, why do you need to see my ID, I’m in the back seat,” Thomas said.
As a son of a retired NYPD detective, Thomas had a handful of Police Benevolent Association courtesy cards in his wallet, a practice under which the cards are often used to signal affiliation with the department during a stop.
He took them out with his ID to show the officers, but one of the cops “was getting agitated,” he recalled.
“I guess I wasn’t moving quick enough for him,” Thomas said. “[The cop] told me if I did not get out of the car and provide my ID he was going to take it from me. I told him, ‘You’re not touching me’ and ‘I’m going to get out of the car on my own,’ but he got more frustrated, ran around the car, grabbed me by my shoulders and shirt, and yanked me out.”
Thomas fell to the ground as he was pulled out of the car, the complaint says. Cell phone video taken by Thomas’ friend shows one cop pulling him across the curb by the neck while another punches him in the back and side.
“Why you punching him?” one of Thomas’ friends demands to know in the video.
“I was getting out of the car! I do not need your help,” Thomas could be heard telling the cops as they handcuffed him. “I’m not doing anything! This is ridiculous!”
Police sources said the three other occupants got out and showed their ID, but Thomas wouldn’t immediately comply, even after his friends were caught on body-worn camera encouraging him to do so.
Thomas was charged with obstructing government administration and resisting arrest. In a complaint filed with Queens Criminal Court, Riccardi said Thomas refused to get out of the car and “planted his feet on the floor inside the vehicle.” When the officer tried to handcuff him, Thomas “tensed up his arms and kept his arm under his body and clenched said arm to his chest to avoid being handcuffed.”
“There were multiple supervisors on that scene. This individual was the only one in the vehicle who refused to comply with their requests. He was concealing his hands and refusing to be handcuffed. He could have easily been concealing a weapon,” the PBA’s Hendry said.
“These officers had to use necessary force to gain compliance and protect their safety and the safety of everyone on that scene,” Hendry said. “We are confident they will be exonerated once the case is fully investigated.”
At Thomas’ arraignment, a Queens Criminal Court judge ordered an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, meaning if he doesn’t get arrested again, the charges will be dismissed.
Cops also handcuffed Thomas’ friend Benjamin Trye, a mental health therapist aide for the New York State Department of Mental Health, who was driving the car. He was later given a summons for having too much tint on the car’s windows, although a tint meter to determine how dark the tint was was never used, according to a notice of claim filed against the city.
Former Detective Thomas, who now lives in Georgia, was livid when he learned his son was arrested. It also gave him flashbacks to 2012, when he was arrested while off duty after coming out of a nightclub in Manhattan. His namesake was with him at the time and he felt he was being racially profiled.
“I was so pissed off,” the retired detective said, remembering the moment he was told of his son’s arrest and shown the video. “I sent the video to Maddrey and all of the guys.”
He even sent the video to Adams, a former NYPD captain. The two went to the Police Academy together, he said.
“They said they didn’t like what they saw and referred me to [IAB],” former Detective Thomas said. “A lot of people need policing, but nobody needs to be roughed up and have their rights violated.”
Attorney Eric Sanders, who filed the notice of claim, indicating his plans to sue the city said he’s also filed a complaint with the Queens District Attorney’s Public Corruption Bureau.
“The violent and unconstitutional treatment of these four men by the NYPD is a direct violation of their civil rights and another glaring example of racial profiling and police brutality,” Sanders said. “The officers involved acted with impunity, escalating a baseless stop into a violent assault.”
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