“NYPD slapped with $3M lawsuit for illegal search in Queens gun bust”

Under the headline:

Officers Andrew Torres, Jason Forgione and James Phillips of the 105th Precinct arrested Andrew James and allegedly searched his car without a warrant. A witness videotaped the whole incident on their phone.

The article, by John Marzulli, begins:

Sure, they took a gun off the street — but the three NYPD cops allegedly did it illegally, then lied to make a criminal case, says a federal lawsuit.

The case fell apart because the cops did not know someone had videotaped them conducting an illegal search of a vehicle, then high-fiving each other when they found a handgun stashed in the engine compartment.

The man they arrested, Andrew James, filed a $3 million lawsuit against the cops Thursday for malicious prosecution and violating his civil rights stemming from the March 2012 encounter on Francis Lewis Boulevard in south Queens.

The piece goes on to state that when one of the cops was on the witness stand before a grand jury he testified that they found the gun “when he was doing a routine inventory of the Cadillac” at the stationhouse. As the video proved, that was a lie.

This entry was posted in Law, suits and order and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.