Remember the Judge
who came upon an "unruly" crowd angry over police abusing a suspect
and called 911 to "help" police get backup, only to be singled out
himself by a raging cop who proceeded to assault him by chopping him in the
throat? If you remember, he was a huge supporter of police, “I’ve always had
profound respect for what they do,” he told the New York Times. Turns out, now
that he's the one in the victim's seat, he's had a change of heart. In fact, he
says he's now "amazed" how multiple police lied about what took
place, he says his beating and the ensuing cover-up is "really changing my
view of the force."
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 cop 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 cop acted with intent to injure,"
Brown said.
The alleged assault on the judge happened as police cop 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 cop 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 cop 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 cop 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 cop 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."