Wayne Simoes/Yonkers Police/Irma Marquez.

The Advocate

Richard Blassberg

What Were Those Jurors Thinking About?

Last Wednesday afternoon, May 27, the jury in the federal criminal trial of Wayne Simoes, Yonkers Police Officer, brought in a verdict declaring the 39-year old, nine-year veteran of the force, “Not Guilty”, within minutes of their self-imposed 4 pm deadline. Earlier, at 1 pm, they had sent out a note to Judge Karas asking, “To be willful, does the person need to have a bad or evil purpose?” After reading the note aloud in the presence of Defense attorneys and Government prosecutors, but out of the presence of the jurors, the Judge, almost spontaneously, responded, “Yes”.

There then ensued a long conversation between Karas, Defense Attorney Andrew Quinn, and Prosecutors, principally Assistant United States Attorney Torrance, assisted at one point by Cynthia Dunne, who significantly prefaced her remarks to the Judge with an apology for speaking despite having apparently promised she would not be throughout the trial. In sum and substance, Quinn would argue repeatedly that a simple “yes” answer would do just fine while Dunne kept insisting, through Torrance, that there was a need for qualification of the affirmative response. Quinn, at one point, declared, and the Judge agreed, “A bad or evil purpose is what separates this procedure from a 1983 [Civil Rights] suit, a criminal from a civil suit.”

Karas bolstered the comparison by saying, “That’s what distinguishes a 242 [federal criminal statute] from a 1983,” further stating, “An evil act isn’t necessarily a crime. Merely saying ‘yes’ is not helpful.” Quinn, however, came back, “Most respectfully, I believe a simple ‘yes’ is best.” The fact was the jury was stumbling over the notion that in order to find Wayne Simoes guilty, they would need to find that he intended the outcome, and this jury, this middle-class, sheltered jury, could not grapple with that conclusion. Never mind what horrible damage was done to Irma Marquez’ face, head and neck as she was deliberately swung like a rag doll, face-first, to the tile floor; this jury’s sympathies were with a rogue, mindless cop with an abundance of testosterone, and not with his victim.

Therein lies the significance of the very real role that Janet DiFiore played in the whole, horrible affair. By not only failing to prosecute the
rogue cop, the perpetrator, Wayne Simoes, as any honest, uncorrupted DA would have, but instead prosecuting his victim, Irma Marquez, on bogus, trumped-up charges of Disorderly Conduct and Obstructing Governmental Administration, Janet DiFiore insured the fact that Simoes would not be tried for Assault, or Reckless Endangerment, or any other offense which he would’ve been convicted of. As a result, once the
videotape repeatedly aired, the United States Attorney’s Office was virtually compelled to step in and charge Simoes with the federal charge of Denying Marquez Her Civil Rights By Use Of Excessive Force. That would require “proof of intent,” in order to obtain a conviction.

In reality, when the jurors sent out their request for clarification, they were signalling their difficulty in accepting their assignment. They were unwilling, for the most part, to acknowledge that a policeman, someone they wanted to believe was really motivated to protect them and even someone so unlike them, Irma Marquez, could possibly have purposely used such force, driving her face and head from more than seven feet in the air, to the hard tile floor, then, immediately jumping on her unconscious body to handcuff her without hesitating a second to examine
what damage had been done to her face and head.

So unwilling was this jury to think about a victim who had been out drinking in a bar in the poor side of the city, that they never stopped to ask, “If he didn’t intend to hurt her, why in Hell did he bodyslam her? And, if he didn’t intend to bodyslam her, why lift her two feet off the ground, putting her head seven feet in the air? Was he intending to slowly slide her back on her feet?”

Then there was the issue of the rogue cop’s ‘cheering squad’. Of course, his wife and parents and, perhaps, some of his buddies at work were to be legitimately expected to come to Court and support him. However, what began on the first day of trial, with about 12 Yonkers police officers, grew daily until, by Wednesday, some 37 officers, including PBA President Eddie Armour, a well-known henchman of, and apologist for, DA Janet DiFiore, filled not only the Defendant’s side of the spectator’s gallery, but much of the other side as well. These officers were clearly intimidating to the jurors. Their message went far beyond mere moral support. Theirs was a You v. Us mentality and, clearly, one of approval of what their pal had done.

There is a big difference between the kind of crowd that will come out for a wrongfully-prosecuted cop, and one that will support a rogue who got caught on tape. Simoes’ fan club was basically telling the world, “We would have done the same.” And, given the number of individuals that we are aware of, who have been subjected to Yonkers police brutality, scores and scores of them; men, women and children; witnessing some three dozen of them clapping their hands vigorously for a cop who bodyslammed a 120-lb, five-foot tall woman, and who got away with it, was no surprise at all!

The real issue now involves just what this acquittal means. There are many unanswered questions. Some enlightened observers are questioning whether the United States Attorney, in assigning two second-string prosecutors, Skotko and Torrance, to the trial, while keeping their female gladiator, Cynthia Dunne, confined to the role of advisor throughout the trial, was really serious about getting a conviction or just faking it. After all, here they had what should have been an easy conviction of someone who the world could plainly see intended to render
the little woman unconscious and helpless; someone who was damned guilty; so guilty that several police officers, including a captain, who is
now a deputy chief, committed perjury under oath at a state trial of the victim, and before Internal Affairs in their effort to cover him up.

Yet, that same United States Attorney’s Office has kept the same Cynthia Dunne working hard at harassing, trying, and wrongfully convicting an innocent former County Correction Officer, Paul Cote, in another bodyslam case where the videotape, and other Brady material, if not withheld by Dunne, would have proven Defendant Cote’s innocence and the guilt of John Mark Reimer, the Government’s key, lying, witness. Clearly, the Government’s sincerity is in question.

Along these same lines, how is it that the FBI, after years of investigating numerous documented cases of Yonkers police brutality, and the Justice Department for whom the information has been gathered, have so far failed to prosecute even a small fraction of them, and only stepped into the Simoes case because of its strong public exposure and the absurdity of DA DiFiore’s prosecution of such an obviously innocent and egregiously injured victim?

The sad reality is that the Federal Government, because of the unethical and wrongful social relationship between former United States Attorney Michael Garcia and DA DiFiore, has thus far let down the People of Westchester, particularly those in Yonkers; innocent men, women and children who have been, and continue to be, harassed and brutalized by a stubborn contingent of rogue cops whose activities we can only guess will now be stepped up and embrazoned by the outcome of the Simoes case.

In conclusion, Yonkers Police Officer Wayne Simoes did not slip, nor accidentally drop Irma Marquez, as his Defense attorney, Andrew
Quinn, attempted to sell as alternate excuses for the outcome of his violent behavior. If that had been the case, what was he intending to do with her if he didn’t slip? He intended to do exactly what he started out to do when he grabbed her and elevated her to where her head came crashing down from some seven feet above the floor in an arc the force and velocity of which made her hair fly out as though she were sitting in an open convertible at 70 mph.

Defense counsel never offered any reasonable explanation of what Wayne Simoes was intending to do with Irma Marquez if he didn’t “slip” or she didn’t “fall”. Any pretense that Simoes hadn’t intended to bodyslam her was negated by his immediate occupation with handcuffing her upon her collision with the tile floor, that Deputy Chief Geiss testified, “sounded like the loudest slap he had ever heard, and at the same
time, like a bowling ball falling from the second floor.” No matter, this officer, who will claim for the rest of his life that he never meant to do what he did, never meant to hurt her, went right to the business of handcuffing her.

Truth be told, now that a police brutality as obvious and brazen as the one perpetrated against Irma Marquez has gone unpunished, the People of Yonkers can expect even more than they have already suffered with, so long as Janet DiFiore is the District Attorney.

Yonkers Police Commissioner Edmund Hartnett/Police Brutality in Yonkers.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

In Our Opinion...

Yonkers Police Commissioner Hartnett Continues To Ignore Police Brutality

In our April 16th issue, Damon K. Jones, Executive Director of the Westchester Chapter of the National Black Police Association declared, in a press release, “There is hypocrisy in Westchester politics. Why did the County Executive and County Legislators push a Shot Spotter System that
is neither preventative nor a true quality-of-life investment for the residents of Mount Vernon and Yonkers, while residents of Ardsley receive monies for school improvement, road maintenance, and wireless systems for their schools?”

Jones was essentially questioning whether the $3 million that the County had agreed to spend on the state-of-the-art technology to more promptly locate the scene of gunfire and probable violence on the streets of Yonkers and Mount Vernon might not have been spent more effectively on other, more fundamental, police department equipment such as computers and working car cams in squad cars. He further suggested that some of the funds might have been better allocated for preventative measures such as job placement, outreach and educational assistance in coordination
with Operation Protect. Officer Jones also expressed his views in The Journal News to which Yonkers Police Commissioner Edmund Hartnett saw fit to respond on Sunday, April 12th.

Responding to Jones’ position, Hartnett accurately indicated that Jones felt the taxpayer funds “would be better spent on long-term solutions to long-standing problems in both communities,” Mount Vernon and Yonkers. Then Hartnett gave Jones the benefit of the doubt declaring, “Although he is probably well-intended, Mr. Jones is missing the point.”

In Mount Vernon, how can Commissioner Chong have any realistic expectation of cooperation and assistance from law-abiding adults and seniors when their 12- and 13-year-old sons and grandsons are beaten and bitten up by squads of rogue cops bent on racial retaliation and punishment
reminiscent of the South of 50 years ago; missing only the high-pressure hoses?

And then there is the Yonkers Police Department, to whom the Mount Vernon Police turned when their own dog was otherwise occupied. For some two and a half years now, Edmund Hartnett, who authored the response to Officer Jones’ comments, has been heading that department as its commissioner.

Hartnett declares, “Gun violence is an immediate problem that requires using all resources and tools at our disposal,” and, We certainly agree. He goes on to say, “The People, especially the children of Yonkers, and Mount Vernon need our help and protection now.” Again, We couldn’t agree
more.

However, the People, especially the children, shouldn’t need our help and protection from violent rogue cops such as the squad of both Mount Vernon and Yonkers Police who beat up and mauled three young boys found loitering in the A.B. Davis Middle School one Saturday evening several
weeks ago.

Furthermore, perhaps if the cities of Yonkers and Mount Vernon had meaningful civilian complaint review boards, Irma Marquez would not have been brutally body-slammed by Officer Wayne Simoes as a half-dozen other Yonkers officers did nothing to stop or apprehend him; and, Rui Florim would not have been beaten, nearly to death, by six off-duty Yonkers cops in the Town of Greenburgh. Commissioner Hartnett, and the Mayor who hired him, see no need for a civilian complaint review board. Each of them have told The Guardian as much, publicly. They like things
just the way they are; and, so, apparently, does DA Janet DiFiore, who covers up the actions of rogue cops while prosecuting not only their civilian victims, but good cops as well.

Our Readers Respond....

Re: Paul Cote


Dear Editor:

I am writing regarding Paul Cote, the Westchester Correction Officer. I have known this man for a very long time. My sister (who lives in Mount
Vernon) is Paul’s aunt. When I heard of his involvement with the incident at the County Jail I could not believe this was the same Paul Cote I know.

I know Paul to be a family man who is respectful, soft-spoken, loving and kind. My understanding is he went to help his partner, another correction officer, who had a problem with an inmate. How come Paul is the only one charged and convicted? Are young people, familiar with this case, going to believe “it doesn’t pay to help a friend”?

Paul doesn’t deserve this injustice. He has suffered enough. Send him home to his children, his wife and his family.

Catherine Mascali,
Staten Island
.

Westchester Guardian/The Court Report.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

The Court Report
By Richard Blassberg

Simoes’ Attorneys Have Hard Sell
Videotape And Fellow Officers Condemn Rogue Cop’s Brutal Conduct
United States Federal District Court, White Plains
Magistrate Judge George A. Yanthis Presiding

Last Wednesday morning, August 27th, Yonkers Police Officer Wayne Simoes appeared in United States District Court before Magistrate Judge George A. Yanthis for arraignment. Officer Simoes, 38, was indicted on August 19, 2008 by a federal grand jury on charges of violating the civil rights of one Irma Marquez by having used excessive force against her in the City of Yonkers on March 3, 2007.

Arrested on June 27, 2008 on a federal criminal complaint, Simoes was released on bond awaiting trial. He continues to be employed, at full pay, by the Yonkers Police Department, engaged in modified duty. Standing before Judge Yanthis, Simoes was accompanied by Attorneys Andrew Quinn, of White Plains, and John Patton, of New York City.

Assistant United States Attorney Jason Halperin represented the Government. Judge Yanthis opened the proceeding, declaring, “We are here
for the arraignment of the Defendant.” He then inquired of Attorney Quinn, “Counsel, how does Defendant plead?” Mr. Quinn responded,
“Defendant pleads not guilty, Your Honor.”

Yanthis then announced, “This case has been assigned to Judge Karas.” Then, making reference to Simoes’ bail and liberty, he said, “Conditions previously set will be continued.” Simoes remains free on $300,000 bond.

Emerging from the courthouse, accompanied by his attorneys and Yonkers Police Benevolent Association President Detective Eddy Armour, Simoes remained silent as Andrew Quinn briefly fielded questions from reporters.

Quinn opened his remarks with, “My client was trying to effect an arrest.” He continued, “With respect to the charges, the tape does not show intent. And, under the applicable statute, it’s necessary that the Government show intent.” Quinn then attempted to portray his client as having been very concerned about the victim, Irma Marquez, who he had body-slammed without any apparent provocation, and had dropped face-first onto the hard floor of La Fonda Restaurant on Palisade Ave., Yonkers. He told reporters, “Officer Simoes went to the hospital the night of the incident. He was very concerned about Ms. Marquez’ well-being.”

Analysis:

Mr. Quinn would appear to have been attempting to make a very difficult argument on behalf of his client. Although the frequently-aired videotape of the incident speaks clearly about what actually occurred, the investigative report issued by Kristina Norris, Special Agent for the FBI,
in Paragraphs 5 and 5a, is particularly corroborative, and condemning, of Officer Simoes’ actions.

Agent Norris reported, in Paragraph 5, “I spoke with, among others, officers who were present at the restaurant on that date, who indicated that the video was an accurate and true depiction of the events that occurred at the restaurant, and that Simoes was the person who picked up Marquez and threw her to the floor.”

In Paragraph 5a, Agent Norris further reported, “Several officers stated that, based on their training and experience, Simoes’ use of force against Marquez was unreasonable and excessive.”

If convicted, following a trial, of having deprived Irma Marquez of the rights secured, and protected, by the Constitution and laws of the United States, to be secure in her person and free from the use of unreasonable force by one acting under Color of Law, Title 18, United States Code, Section 242, Wayne Simoes faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Westchester Guardian/Janet Difiore/Rui Florim.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

The Advocate
Richard Blassberg

FBI And Justice Department
Must Act Now

Recently the Westchester Community has become painfully aware of the fact that all is not right in their District Attorney’s Office. The relationship between District Attorney Janet DiFiore and certain police departments, particularly the Harrison and Yonkers Police Departments, has led to numerous serious miscarriages of justice, and the further abuse of innocent civilian victims of police brutality and harassment, at the hands of DA DiFiore and her staff.

Until last week what appeared to be the ultimate case of prosecutorial misconduct in the handling of a victim of police brutality in Westchester was Irma Marquez, body-slammed, and nearly killed by Yonkers Police Officer Wayne Simoes; then maliciously and mindlessly
prosecuted on trumped-up, totally false, charges by DiFiore and Company.

Unbeknownst to Simoes, and several of-ficers present at the Marquez incident, the entire event was recorded by a concealed video camera, and the tape obtained by her attorneys. Incredibly, that tape was shown to Janet DiFiore, but she proceeded with the bogus prosecution
nevertheless.

DiFiore’s actions have been totally indefensible, not only in the Marquez case, but also in numerous other similar cases as well. And, until last Monday, Marquez represented, perhaps, the most appalling example of justice gone haywire, and criminal, in its application by Westchester’s District Attorney to the criminal acts of violent police officers.

Not surprisingly, Ms. Marquez was acquitted of all charges against her in May, in State Court following a jury trial, and is now suing for $11.3 million in United States District Court, represented by Attorney Gary Certain of New York City. Last Monday, however, Attorney
Jonathan Lovett of White Plains filed a lawsuit in that same Court on behalf of Rui Florim, a 26-year-old Yonkers resident, against several Yonkers police officers, Police Commissioner Hartnett, and the City of Yonkers, seeking $20 million for an unprovoked, ethnically-motivated, violation of his Constitutional rights when he was forcibly abducted in the Town of Greenburgh and repeatedly beaten
into unconsciousness by six Yonkers police officers in plain clothes, using two unmarked Yonkers police cars; a pre-planned, calculated conspiracy and criminal act.

Florim, who was dragged from a car in which he was riding home from work as a passenger in the Village of Hartsdale, was so severely injured that he required 70 stitches and staples to close the wounds to his face and head, spending five days in the intensive care unit of
St. Joseph’s Hospital, Yonkers; barred the entire time by Yonkers Police from being seen by his lawyer or by his family.

Following the filing last Monday morning, August 4, Attorney Lovett and Mr. Florim held a press conference attended by major broadcast and print media. Lovett, responding to a question about his client’s long-term injuries, told reporters, “He continues to suffer from
migraine headaches, episodes of fear and sweat, post-traumatic after-effects, and scars. But, DA DiFiore couldn’t care less.” Florim added, “There is no justice. I’ve been going through this for two and a half years, and I want to get on with my life.”

Lovett then said, “They called him a ‘spic’, apparently believing he was Latino. There was a racial angle.” He went on, “My client was
denied his right to counsel, and was a victim of a conspiracy to violate his civil rights.” Lovett declared, “The DA is affirmatively encouraging
police brutality.”

Jonathan Lovett summarized, saying, “This case is worse than the Marquez case, in a different way. This case was premeditated and calculated. First, Mr. Florim was assaulted by a goon squad that went hunting for him; and then an assault by the district attorney. She wants
to prosecute a man for being beaten.”

As in the Marquez case, and scores of instances of Yonkers police brutality, DA Janet DiFiore, and her top-level assistant, James McCarty, who is prosecuting the Florim case, are very well aware of the fact that Mr. Florim is completely innocent of the bogus charges that have
been brought against him; and that those in need of prosecution are the six Yonkers police officers who nearly killed him. Yet, DiFiore and her Office continue to move forward in co-conspiracy with the dirty cops under a criminally motivated commissioner, Edmund Hartnett, caught up in an incestuously driven relationship.

The Justice Department, and the FBI, must now take a good long look, not only at the actions of DA DiFiore, and her Office, with respect to the crimes perpetrated against Irma Marquez, but also against Rui Florim, and numerous other innocent civilian victims. DiFiore’s deliberate prosecutorial misconduct, in covering up the actionable state and federal crimes by Yonkers Police, are no mere oversights or misjudgments. They are the calculated acts of a totally misguided prosecutor obligated and indebted for “installation” into her position.

What more serious betrayal can any prosecutor work against innocent citizens than wrongfully prosecuting them to cover up criminal acts of violence performed against them by those sworn to protect them? How many more Bureau Chiefs and Assistant DAs under her command, will Janet DiFiore be permitted to sacrifice and jettison for having carried out her orders before federal authorities finally place the responsibility, and the blame, squarely on her shoulders where it most certainly belongs?

How many more innocent men, women and children must suffer under this sick, unjust, scheme before DA Di-Fiore is apprehended and removed? The time for action is now.

Westchester Guardian/Janet Difiore.

Jeff Deskovic

The Irma Marquez Case:
What Should Have Happened

As has been public knowledge for quite some time now, there is a serious problem with police brutality in Yonkers. The Guardian, nearly two years ago, in September of 2006 virtually opened Pandora’s Box with an article about a “Mother, 72, Daughter 49,” the Bostwicks, one of whom was roughed up, and the other brutalized and charged with bogus offenses by Yonkers Police. The police were responding to their call because a teenager who had been beaten up and bloodied by a neighbor of theirs came pleading for help to their door.

Within a week of the appearance of their story, the local chapter of the NAACP, chaired by President Karen Edmonson, held a seminar at the Riverfront Library, which was attended by approximately 125 people, at which 25 to 30 people came forward to describe their personal experiences and that of their families with Yonkers Police brutality. Their information was recorded by law students from Pace Law School under the direction of Randolph McLaughlin and Debra Cohen.

About a year later, at a similar public forum in Sept. 2007, Mayor Amicone was booed and chased out of the auditorium for trying to suggest that there was no problem. I will explore what happened to another Yonkers Police brutality vic-tim, Irma Marquez, and discuss what
should have happened as well as discussing community relations between the public and the police department, which was discussed at a recent public forum held in Mount Vernon at the Grace Baptist Church.

In March 2007, Irma Marquez’ niece was hit with a bottle and knocked unconscious at La Fonda restaurant in Yonkers. EMTs were called, and Marquez, a middle-aged home health aide, who was present, was also trying to tend to her niece, bending over her while the EMTs were working. An officer took Marquez by the arm and backed her up, and she accidentally stepped on the foot of another officer in the process.

At that point Yonkers police officer Wayne Simoes approached and shoved Marquez’ shoulder. Marquez apparently objected to being shoved, and Simoes grabbed her by the waist, lifted her in the air and slammed her face-first into the tile floor, handcuffing her as she lay unconscious.

She suffered a broken jaw and extensive bruising and had to be hospitalized for four days. The whole incident was captured on a concealed
security video camera. Marquez was nonetheless arrested and charged with Obstruction Of Governmental Administration, and an internal
inquiry cleared Simoes of any wrongdoing. After Marquez’s attorney, Gary Certain, viewed the tape, he asked for the charges to be dropped.
Assistant DA Paul Scharf, bureau chief of the local courts and grand jury, responded that he had reviewed the tape with Assistant District
Attorney Mark Garretto, Bureau Chief in Yonkers, and they had decided to follow through on the case against Marquez.

Attorney Certain said he then sent a letter to DiFiore with details of the video and pictures of Marquez’s injuries. She called him and indicated the case would be re-examined. However, he never heard back from her until early May, when her Office said it was proceeding to trial. At some point prior to the jury verdict, the Justice Department informed the City of Yonkers that it was investigating the case. Upon learning that, Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone held a news conference to praise the department, saying its officers “do their jobs the right way in full accordance with the law.” Marquez was acquitted following a jury trial, and proceeded to file an $11.3 million dollar lawsuit against the police department.

After the trial, Westchester District Attorney Janet DiFiore launched an internal inquiry into how her own office handled the matter. She suggested on Friday, June 27, in a terse written statement that the case was ‘mishandled’. She stated, “Personnel have been disciplined,
operational changes are being made, and enhanced training is being put in place.” Her office declined further comment and wouldn’t say who
was disciplined. However, Mark Garretto, who had been the bureau chief in Yonkers since DiFiore became district attorney in 2006, was reassigned to the Motions And Appeals Bureau. DiFiore’s spokesman, Lucien Chalfen, remained tight-lipped, not willing to say whether
Garretto’s transfer was related to the Marquez case.

On June 27th the FBI arrested Simoes and accused him of violating Marquez’ civil rights. FBI Agent Kristina Norris wrote in a criminal complaint against Simoes filed in U.S. District Court in White Plains that when agents asked police officers about the images from a surveillance videotape that showed Officer Wayne Simoes brutally slamming Irma Marquez facedown to the ground, “Several officers
stated that, based on their training and experience, Simoes’ use of force against Marquez was unreasonable and excessive,” Simoes surrendered to federal authorities at 9 a.m. in White Plains and made a brief court appearance two hours later. He was released on $300,000 bond.

Yonkers Police said in a statement that Commissioner Edmund Hartnett has told the department’s Internal Affairs Division to reopen its investigation. Additionally, Yonkers police released a statement that said Simoes had been placed on modified duty. Here is what should have happened: Firstly, the police officers who were on the scene should have arrested Simoes’ right there on the spot for assault. The fact that a perpetrator draws his paycheck from a law enforcement position does not excuse him. If anything, the fact that he is in a position of public trust and equipped with a gun and a baton, and other equipment, and has the ability to call others for help, and yet nonetheless abuses it, makes it an aggravating circumstance, Aggravated Assault.

When the other officers failed to arrest him, the supervisor should have arrested him, while suspending those officers who were present and did nothing. When that failed, each person up the line in authority should have made the arrest while suspending those under him/her who failed to do so. When the matter ultimately got to the level of the District Attorney’s Office, Assistant District Attorneys Mark Garretto and Paul Scharf should have charged Simoes with assault, while also dismissing the charges against Marquez.

After all, the incident was caught on tape and therefore there was no question as to what happened. When that failed, District Attorney DiFiore should have had Simoes arrested and had the charges dismissed against Marquez. A District Attorney is, I believe, ultimately responsible for everything that goes on in the office. In point of fact, they are there to oversee and supervise everything. While I can see
how it could get difficult to stay on top of every single thing, at all times, while letting nothing escape one’s notice, Attorney Certain stated that he sent a letter to DiFiore with details of the video and pictures of Marquez’s injuries, and upon receipt of which she called him
and indicated the case would be re-examined.

Therefore, she knew precisely what was going on. As I said earlier, when the officers who were present saw Simoes bodyslam Marquez, they should have immediately arrested them. If an ordinary citizen did that to somebody in the presence of police officers, they would
be arrested on the spot. We also see in the Marquez case that the blue wall of silence is very much still alive. Every single one of those officers who maintained that code of silence should be suspended. Lest anyone think that I am anti-cop or overreacting, we are talking about a
crime that was initially covered up, and likely still would be but for release of the videotape.

The covering up that typically goes on when the system covers up for the system, no matter what the facts are, manifested itself in the initial police internal investigation clearing Simoes. Mayor Amicone, making his public statement defending and praising the police when word got out that the Justice Department was investigating Simoes, and the District Attorney’s office not dropping the charges against Marquez and arresting him, represent a repititious conspiracy and scenario in blatant violation of the victim’s civil rights.

That Marquez had to be subjected to the trauma, expense, uncertainty, and risk of being wrongfully convicted that a trial brings for someone that the tape shows was innocent of, is shameful and unlawful. Anyone who believes that the reinvestigation by the Yonkers Police Department would have happened had the FBI not arrested Simoes, is naïve. In support of that thesis, I would like to point out that the tape and photos were around during the first go around. I am convinced that Simoes received preferential treatment from the court system once he was arrested, that only the connected, powerful, political, wealthy, and some law enforcement personnel are accorded: being released
on bail the same day that he was arrested. This two tiered system of justice-one for the poor and common folk, and the other for those on the upper end of the socio economic status, has got to stop if the law is to have any moral authority. I believe that the District Attorney’s Office should have released the names of those employees who were disciplined. Why should it be a private thing? I believe in transparency in government, and that the public has a right to know what is going on, and why. When someone has been transferred or disciplined for wrongdoing, the public should know so that we can have confidence that the same individual will not be able to repeat his or her actions,
and that it will not be tolerated by any other staff member. It would show that everything is above board, nothing is going on behind the scenes, nothing being swept under the rug, and no us v. them mentality. As a citizen of Westchester, I, along with the public, would like to know, without having to draw an inference; but instead being explicitly told, how the people who were disciplined were actually disciplined.

Why is it when ordinary citizens are arrested it is announced to the public; their names and what the charges are, and what the punishment ends up being. Whenever tragedy or misfortunate comes, I believe that we have a moral responsibility to victims to do what we can to see to it that they do not suffer for no reason. We, instead, must learn the lessons of the incident and do what we can to prevent any reccurrence.
The maxim that “Those who fail to learn from the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them in the future,” is true. Accordingly, I have some concrete ideas involving morality and legislation that would, if followed, prevent future cases such as Irma Marquez.

I would call upon the honest, law abiding police officers of Yonkers to take back the police force from the band of rogue cops who are engaging in police brutality, the breaking of the laws, and general corruption. There should be no feelings of solidarity between honest
cops and dishonest ones. Instead, true officer solidarity should come from the observable actions of honest, law-abiding police work that stays within the limits of the law, involves no brutality, cuts no corners, does not violate the rights of any civilians, whether suspects or not; takes no bribes, and engages in no corruption. The maintaining of good relations should be dependent upon the maintaining of those rules.

Prosecutors should pay special attention whenever there are allegations by defendants that they’ve been roughed up by police. In every instance where that has proven to be the case, charges against accused should be dismissed. To do less than that is to allow rogue law
enforcement officers to hijack the legal system and use it to their own ends as a means of covering up their own brutality. It is not unusual for such officers to falsely charge people with “resisting arrest” in order to try to justify their previous unlawful use of force. It also serves
to further punish a defendant who they have previously brutalized. We must enact laws which encourage law enforcement personnel who witness other officers committing crimes, to step forward and press charges; with the failure to do so being grounds not only for dismissal, but also to be charged with the crime of aiding and abetting and acting in concert. The same should apply to any supervisors who witness, or in any way learn of the occurrence of such activity and yet take no action to investigate and arrest where the evidence is secured.

In reality, those who turn their heads are, in fact, assisting the culture to form in which brutality is acceptable. In my book, that is aiding and
abetting. The legislation should be not just on a state level, but also on the federal level, authorizing the FBI and U.S. Attorney to step in whenever state law makers fail to do so. Each time an of-ficer gets away with police brutality, it threatens the safety of us all while setting
the stage for acceptability to set in, thus causing it to happen again. Until such time as legislation is passed to that effect, departments should adopt internal policies requiring officers and supervisors to take action when they witness or otherwise learn of police brutality.

Legislation is absolutely necessary which would establish an independent prosecutor to handle any and all cases involving the police. Police and prosecutors work together, and it is only natural that a certain amount of familiarity or cordiality develops between them, and such personal interaction can often factor into the thought processes with regard to whether to prosecute or not. Someone who has no personal familiarity with the people involved in a case, and can instead look at the facts of a case objectively with no personal consideration; in short, an independent prosecutor is what is needed. An independent prosecutor is not bound by the constraints imposed by the relationship
between district attorneys and police. Additionally, one cannot overemphasize the importance of Civilian Complaint Review Boards. However, such Boards cannot be effective unless they have subpoena power, and the power to suspend and bestow penalties.

Westchester Guardian.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

The Advocate
Richard Blassberg

Cops On Steroids?

Anabolic Steroids = Police Brutality

Anabolic steroids, high levels of synthetic testosterone and human growth hormone (HGH) have been suspected and tested for in Major League baseball, the NFL, and just about every professional and amateur organized sporting event, including the Olympics. Their use has been banned for many years, with only partial success, and such compounds remain a continuing problem in terms of accessibility and detection.


Actually, the impact of anabolic steroids is most often quite detectable, both in terms of the user's physical appearance and temperament. Physically, there is a muscling, or bulking up that is unmistakable, particularly in the extremities. Temperamental behavioral changes may be more subtle at first. However, users soon begin to display unusually aggressive behavior, progressing over time to outright belligerent, antisocial attitudes and activities. Situations that never pose any cause for concern, or a threat to safety and security, increasingly appear threatening.

A drug-induced paranoia, accompanied by the urge for violent physical contact, begins to take hold with continued exposure to steroids. Yonkers Police Officer Wayne Simoes' behavior with respect to Irma Marquez, on March 3, 2007, in the presence of several other officers, was that kind of extreme and inappropriate violence.


The videotaped segment makes it abundantly clear that Officer Simoes was confronted with no physical threat, no imminent harm; and yet responded in a manner Calculated to bring Grievous injury, if not death, to Ms. Marquez. Any individual capable of such horrific violence, without provocation, is a "walking time bomb." A police officer so wired is a major catastrophe about to happen who needs to be immediately removed from active duty, disarmed and defused.

To be sure, the Yonkers Police Department is not the only department in Westchester with officers who have demonstrated extreme belligerence and violence toward innocent, non-threatening, civilians. However, it is a department where per-capita complaints of police brutality have been very high in number and often extreme in character.


In 2005 Tina Bostwick and her daughter Mary, then 72, and 49 years of age, were brutalized by the Yonkers Police simply for having called them to respond to a badly beaten and injured teen that had fled from a neighbor's house. Mary, the daughter, was physically attacked by a responding police officer, handcuffed, brought to the police station, and charged with the usual cover-up, bogus, charges, Disorderly Conduct, Obstruction Of Governmental Administration, Resisting Arrest, etc. She has suffered enormous post-traumatic stress symptoms, and gone through great expense over the last three years, as a result.

In 2006 Rui Florim, then 21, was hunted down and grabbed by six Yonkers police officers upon leaving his job in Hartsdale. Dressed in civilian clothing and using unmarked cars, they pulled Florim from the vehicle he was riding in, and threw him into one of their cars where four of them proceeded to beat him mercilessly about the face and head. He required 70 stitches and staples to close his wounds, and five days in St. Joseph's Hospital's intensive care unit, the entire time kept under police observation that physically barred his family and his attorney from seeing him.


Most recently revealed, Irma Marquez, body-slammed in July of 2007, lucky-to-be-alive after being thrown head-first onto a tile floor, suffers from memory loss, and loss of mental and physical function that will likely plague her rest of her life. What we see in the videotaped segment is a Yonkers police officer acting out with unjustifiable rage against an unarmed, defenseless, innocent woman.

As alarming as that act was, is the failure of any one of several other officers, visible at the scene, to attempt to prevent Officer Simoes' brutal, and clearly criminal, conduct. Apparently violence of that extreme nature against unarmed civilians was nothing that unusual in their experience. And, perhaps no one in the room had courage enough to stand up for human rights and professional police conduct against a virtual "madman".


The Bostwick, Florim and Marquez cases are but three of literally hundreds of incidents involving Yonkers Police brutality in the last three years alone; and those cases reported come only from those victims brave enough to come forward.

Sources have informed The Guardian of doctors with offices very close to St. John's Riverside Hospital who allegedly have supplied several Yonkers police officers with anabolic steroids, and other compounds, for years. However,in reality, those bent on using anabolic steroids can easily do so without the need to deal with a physician. In our December 27, 2007 edition we ran a two-page feature spotlighting legislation being developed at that time by New York State Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, designed to curtail the operation of so-called "Internet pharmacies," brought to light by the Mitchell Report on Drug Abuse in Major League Baseball.


Again, the Yonkers Police Department is clearly not alone with respect to the steroid problem. In January of this year, the NYPD was compelled to broaden its probe of steroid use amongst police officers when at least 27 officers' names came up as customers of Lowens Compounding Pharmacy in Brooklyn, a pharmacy known to have been illegally supplying steroids to professional athletes. Additionally, the

Brooklyn DA's Office opened an investigation into their operations. By April the NYPD announced that they were going to begin randomly testing their 36,000-officer force for steroid use. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly stated, "It only makes sense to include steroids," referencing the fact that the NYPD was already testing for narcotics.

We believe the time has come for the City of Yonkers, specifically Mayor Phil Amicone and his police commissioner, Edmund Hartnett, to get real with regard to their long-standing, pervasive police brutality problem. It is not now, nor has it ever been, an acceptable state of affairs that the police department is run like a paramilitary organization, striking fear in decent, hard-working citizens, rather than enlisting their cooperation, and assistance, in crime fighting and prevention.


We, therefore, strongly suggest that the following measures be immediately implemented:·

• Routine, random testing for Anabolic steroids and other illegal drugs;·
• Mandatory wearing of name plaques by every uniformed officer;·
• Formation of a real Civilian Complaint Review Board, not under Police Department control.

Janet Difiore.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

The Advocate
Richard Blassberg

DiFiore’s Incestuousness With Yonkers
Police Sacrifices Victims Of Police Brutality
Tony Castro Predicts, “It Will Come Back To Haunt Law Enforcement”

Nearly two years ago, in our September 21, 2006 issue, The Guardian blew the lid off years of Yonkers Police brutality, revealing an incident in 2005 in a front-page story entitled Mother, 72, Daughter, 49, Charge Yonkers Police Brutality. That story, which detailed the serious civil rights violations the Yonkers Police Department committed when they roughed up a middle-aged woman and her elderly mother, up behind Saunders High School, opened the floodgate to reports by residents, all over the City, and caused the sudden resignation and retirement of Police Commissioner Robert Taggart.

Within a week of the appearance of that story, President Karen Edmonson and Attorney Mike Sussman, of the Yonkers chapter of the NAACP, held a speak-out session at the Riverfront Library, attended by more than 125 persons, many of whom told about their own, and
their family’s, including mother’s and children’s, brutal encounters with the Yonkers Police, involving little or no provocation or justifi-
cation. Attorneys and law students from Pace Law School’s Criminal Justice Center, recorded their accounts which ultimately came to the attention the United States Attorney’s Office and the FBI.

More than a year ago, the FBI, in response, announced that they were conducting a “formal investigation into allegations of police brutality in Yonkers.” The Guardian is aware of visits by FBI special agents to a number of victim/complainants, including Tina and Mary Bostwick, the mother and daughter subjects of our first report. To date, we are not aware of any reports having been issued, or af-firmative action having been taken by the United States Attorney’s Of-fice, or the FBI, that might impact the continuing, unlawful brutality, and false criminal charges routinely worked against innocent men, women and children by, perhaps, 20 or so rogue, violent police offi-cers out of a force of some 670.

Last fall, a second speak-out was held at the Riverfront Library; this time in the auditorium, a few weeks prior to the mayoral election. Mayor Amicone, who had been campaigning nearby, came in to the auditorium in an ill-advised attempt to whitewash and dilute the concerns of the diverse, but mostly minority, audience. He was quickly booed and jeered, and literally chased from the auditorium.

In case after case, the routine has been the same; Yonkers Police beating up innocent citizens, then charging them with Disorderly Conduct, Obstruction of Governmental Administration, Resisting Arrest, Assault Upon A Police Of-ficer, or any combination thereof, both to cover and provide justifi-cation for their own criminal, civil rights violations, and as “bargaining chips” intended to discourage civilian victims from lodging criminal and/or civil complaints.

The practice has been going on for many years; DA Jeanine Pirro, for the most part, looking the other way. However, DA Janet DiFiore
has literally become a co-conspirator with Police Commissioner Hartnett and Mayor Amicone in case after case, as in the Irma Marquez
case. Marquez, all but killed by a totally unjustified body slam delivered by Yonkers Police Of-ficer Wayne Simoes, on March 3, 2007, was charged and prosecuted by DA DiFiore for Obstruction Of Governmental Administration and Disorderly Conduct, an absolutely absurd response by the DA given the clear, indisputable evidence provided by a security camera videotape at the scene.

Those who might wonder why Janet DiFiore repeatedly abandons her sworn duty to protect innocent citizens in her rush to aid and assist
rogue Yonkers cops, while covering up the Department’s serious civil rights violations, need to understand that she has a deep indebtedness
to the Yonkers Police, given the circumstances surrounding her race for District Attorney against Tony Castro in 2005. In point of fact, Di-
Fiore, whose husband attempted to bribe Right-To-Life candidate Anthony DiCintio off the ballot, was nonetheless publicly endorsed by
the Yonkers Police Department.

They were the host department at the Yonkers Polish Center within days of the election at a rally by police brass from Harrison, Dobbs
Ferry and other departments. But, more importantly, and more suspect, they were the department assigned to secure the warehouse storage
facility on Saw Mill River Road, where more than 300 voting machines were impounded at DiFiore’s request; a request filed three days
before the election was even held. This writer, who was reporting at the time for Martinelli Publications, witnessed the recanvas of those machines.

Having been Tony Castro’s campaign director when, as a total unknown he came close to defeating Jeanine Pirro four years earlier, I quickly recognized the peculiar voting patterns revealed in the 2005 Yonkers recount, not to mention numerous machines with broken seals. Despite the so-called “Non- Aggression Pact” of 2001, where Andy Spano and Larry Schwartz, and Reggie Lafayette, and all their henchmen, were actually part of the “fix” to reelect Jeanine Pirro, I never doubted that she won by six points, actually receiving more votes than my candidate. I have never enjoyed that lack of doubt with respect to Janet DiFiore. Given the totality of the circumstances, what reasonably
intelligent individual could?

Finally, speaking of Tony Castro, exposure of Irma Marquez’ case, less than two weeks ago, with its shocking videotape, brought to mind his client, Rui Florim, now approximately 23, who was beaten by six Yonkers police officers approximately 2 years ago. The facts of his encounter are no less outrageous and egregious.

Florim, who had gotten off work at 10:30pm from O’Porto Restaurant in the Village of Hartsdale, Town of Greenburgh, was being driven home by a female friend, having just crossed Central Avenue when they were pulled over by flashing lights in a dark area of the roadway. Six Yonkers Police Officers, including one female, all dressed in civilian clothing, pulled Florim from his friend’s car. And, forcing him into their unmarked car, four of them beat him about the face and head mercilessly.

He was then taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital, opposite Yonkers Police Headquarters, a hospital repeatedly used as the depository for victims of Yonkers Police brutality. He required 70 stitches and staples and five days in the Intensive Care Unit to recover. While he was in St. Joseph’s, Yonkers Police physically barred his family, and his attorney, from any contact with him.

Tony Castro represents Mr. Florim in State Court because, as with Irma Marquez, DA DiFiore is prosecuting him on trumped-up charges. Florim, will, no doubt, also be bringing an action in Federal Court. Castro told The Guardian, “The District Attorney’s routine response to Yonkers Police brutality is very short-sighted. She is not looking ahead to the long-term implications for juries and verdicts.

Jurors will learn what has been taking place. And, what has happened in The Bronx is what will happen in Yonkers, and all over
Westchester.” Castro went on, “It will come back to haunt law enforcement all across Westchester in the near-future. Their jury service is where citizens express their feelings about what they experience with police.”

Tony Castro, a former Bronx Assistant District Attorney, with 14 years experience, who trained hundreds of prosecutors, and who was
Deputy Bureau Chief of Homicides and the Grand Jury, was referring specifically to the preferential treatment DA DiFiore has repeatedly
shown the Yonkers Police Department at the expense of innocent citizens, as she has consistently been unwilling to investigate and prosecute their brutality against men, women and children. He is concerned that grand juries and trial juries will become so cynical and jaded that they will refuse to indict, or convict, in cases that are dependent upon police accounts.

The Advocate
Richard Blassberg

Tired Of City Hall Denials And Inaction, Victims Of Yonkers Police Brutality Send Amicone Packing

Saturday afternoon, September 29th, Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone found out, the hard way, what
victims of police brutality, be they Black, White, Latino, or other, felt about his, and his police commissioner’s,
failure to acknowledge and deal with numerous unresolved cases of police brutality. Making an
unscheduled appearance at the Riverfront Public Library, before nearly 200 victims and community spokespersons, the second ‘speak-out’ event at the site in a year, Amicone attempted to tell the assemblage that
his administration “does not ignore police brutality complaints.” That remark was immediately responded
to by a local business operator, who yelled, “We don’t believe you.” There then followed shouts and taunts from
several in the audience as the Mayor beat a hasty retreat from the auditorium, obviously humiliated.

The gathering had been organized by Katrina Phillips, assistant to Al Sharpton, head of the National Action Network, brought into Yonkers by Karen Edmonson, President of the Yonkers Chapter of the NAACP, back in July, when it became obvious to her that conversations with Police Commissioner Edmund Hartnett “were
going nowhere.” Saturday’s forum was intended to accomplish what was not accomplished when the July event, scheduled at the Messiah Baptist Church on Warburton Avenue, was cancelled because of City Hall warnings to the pastor that violence and street clashes might result from the event.

Showing up briefly in July at the African-American Festival that followed the cancelled church event, Sharpton correctly observed that Yonkers Police brutality was “a problem not targeting only the minority community.” He ordered figures demonstrating that nearly fifty percent of complaints over the previous year had come from White complainants.

Mayor Amicone and Edmund Hartnett, his appointed Police Commissioner, had been put on notice a year ago, when the jolting frontpage headline of the September 21st edition of e Westchester Guardian read “Mother 72, Daughter 49, Charge Yonkers Police Brutality.”

The article detailed how Tina and Mary Bostwick, lifelong residents of Yonkers, had been badly mistreated
by Yonkers Police. Mary, the daughter, was roughed-up and arrested by a police officer with a reputation for
violent conduct, after summoning help for a severely injured youth who had been beaten by their neighbor.

Then, six days after the article hit the street, Police Commissioner Robert Taggart mysteriously resigned after forty years on the job. Following that article, literally scores of individuals, previously too frightened and intimidated to speak up, began coming forward. Their cases were detailed and documented. By not responding,
for the most part, and, in fact, stiff-arming the press and denying the longstanding pervasive problem, Amicone and Hartnett have lost the confideence of the community, particularly the City’s African-American community. At the same time they have caused the Federal Government, the Justice Department, through the United States
Attorney’s Office, to open an investigation into the matter, as it is obvious that City Hall has no serious intention of acknowledging the long-standing and pervasive police brutality problem, much less dealing with it.

Dennis Robertson On Federal Investigation of Yonkers Police:

“Had the Mayor addressed the matter a year ago, when it became an issue, we wouldn’t need an outside
agency in Yonkers to straighten out the problem.”

Dennis Robertson, Democratic Candidate for Mayor of Yonkers, interviewed several weeks ago by the Guardian, when asked how he intended to deal with continuing allegations of police brutality, if elected mayor, responded rmly, “ the key is getting rid of the bad apples. They only give the department a bad name. When I am mayor, there will be more public trust.”

Reached last Wednesday, following the announcement that Federal investigators were engaged in a full-scale investigation of repeated allegations of police brutality by the Yonkers Police Department, Robertson declared, “It’s all about a lack of leadership. is is what happens when you have a weak mayor who lacks the courage to address the difficult issues. I believe the Yonkers Police Department is a good, hard-working department.

However, like any large organization, there are a few who need to be removed for the good of the People and
for the good of the department.”

Yonkers City Council Majority Leader McDow’s Proposal To Strengthen Civilian Police Complaint Review Board Long Overdue Many Outstanding Cases of Police Brutality Still Unresolved

Yonkers City Council Majority Leader Patricia McDow last week called for a renewed effort by that body to move her long-standing legislative proposal to expand the City’s Civilian Police Complaint Review Board out of committee and up for a vote.

The proposal would expand the present seven-member board, consisting mostly of Yonkers Police officials, to thirteen members.

Seven members would be chosen, one each, by each of the seven City Council members, four would be appointed by the Mayor, and two by the Police Commissioner.

The Westchester Guardian, in a cover story on September 21, 2006, headlined, “Mother 72, Daughter 49,
Charge Yonkers Police Brutality,” set in motion a series of events which began with a Public “Speak-Out” session sponsored by the Yonkers Chapter of the NAACP under President Karen Edmonson, and Chapter Attorney Michael Sussman, at the Riverfront Library, two days later, and the resignation of then-Yonkers Police Commissioner Robert Taggart, four days after that. Scores of citizens rose to their feet, many of them middle-aged, to describe beatings and brutality meted out by Yonkers Police Officers in recent years.

Also present at the gathering, which went on for more than three hours, and drew more than 100 persons, were Civil Rights Activists Attorneys Debra Cohen and Randolph McLaughlin, accompanied by several Pace University Law School students who interviewed complainants many of whom had never previously come forward publicly. Last week Cohen appeared on Cablevision NEWS12 to lend support to McDow’s renewed call for the passage of her proposed legislation.

McDow told The Guardian, “We must encourage citizens to come forward, who are intimidated and unwilling
to under the present system.” She explained that with an expanded Review Board, one that was more representative of, and sensitive to, the community, incidents involving mishandling, and possible brutality by police will be more likely to be fairly and promptly dealt with.There are currently numerous unresolved cases involving allegations of Yonkers Police brutality.

One particularly disturbing case, previously widely reported, involves a number of Yonkers Police Officers who are alleged to have beaten a civilian to within an inch of his life, in a location outside of Yonkers.

McDow’s proposal is comprehensive and well thought out, and perhaps will pick up co-sponsorship by Council President Chuck Lesnick.

Tina Bostwick, who together with her daughter Mary, were the victims of Yonkers Police brutality, reported by The Guardian back in September, when asked about her feelings regarding the failure of the City Council to move forward with McDow’s proposed legislation, remarked.

“I am horriffied by the delay given that my daughter and I have endured two years of hell, mentally and physically, because no one in Yonkers City government has been willing to rectify what was done to us simply because we came to the aid of two young boys, and called for the police.”

People Speak Out On Police Brutality And The Commissioner Resigns

Yonkers-Wednesday, September 27th – Police Commissioner Robert Taggart announced his resignation effective November 2nd. This action followed by six days THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN headline that had declared, “Mother 72, Daughter 49, Charge Yonkers Police Brutality.”

On Saturday, the 23rd, the Yonkers Chapter of the NAACP, under its President Karen Edmonson, and long-time counsel Michael Sussman, conducted a “ Speak Out” event at the Riverfront Library. In light of numerous recent complaints, the organization had invited all persons who had been victims of police brutality, at the hands of theYonkers Police Department, to come forward and share their experiences. The event which began just before noon, ran for three hours, as nearly twenty individuals rose to share their horror stories with the more than one hundred residents gathered.

As one might expect, at a gathering organized by the NAACP, the majority of victims who came forward were Black. However, several Latino and Caucasian men and women rose to speak. The first complainant, a young Black man in his late twenties, a recovering addict, spoke of being approached near his own residence, to be accosted and severely beaten by several Yonkers Police Officers, suffering a broken arm and severely damaged knee. When asked by Attorney Sussman, “How long ago did this happen to you,” he responded that it had been three years, and that he intended to take legal action against the police. Sussman explained that in all likelihood the 3-year statute of limitations had run out.

A middle-aged Black mother rose to describe what the Yonkers Police had done to her son in January 2000, and again in September of 2001. With deep emotion in her voice, she declared, “ Twice the Police broke into my home and beat my son terrible.” Her son was 35 at the time of the second incident. She explained that they went to Federal Court, but the charges against the police were dismissed, and her son was convicted of assaulting the officers.

Another middle-aged Black woman described how she had been with her 15-year-old grandson on Lawrence Street last year, when the police approached, put her in handcuffs and planted drugs on her grandson. She spoke of the terrible fear she and her neighbors all feel for the police, and their unwillingness tocall them for help.
A well spoken young Black woman described how police came to her apartment at 47 Riverdale Avenue, and barged in. When she insisted that they produce a warrant she was told “We don’t need no fucken’ warrant.” Then they proceeded to bang her around and arrest her without probable cause.

There followed a Latina, in her mid-thirties, a ten-year employee of the Yonkers Public School System who described how she and several of her friends were recently accosted by Yonkers Police while they were not engaging in any unlawful activity whatsoever, She was roughed up along with six of her friends, and charged with Disorderly Conduct, and Obstruction of Government al Administration, a misdemeanor. She was still very emotionally upset, and will be returning to City Court in Mid-October.

A Latino male, in his twenties, stood up next to his mother, who was obviously too emotionally scarred to speak, and described how the Yonkers Police had come to his fathers auto repair business on New Main Street, and beat up his mother, tossing her to the ground, himself, and his father who tried to protect them. He showed several photographs of his mother’s injuries.

Several of the complainants described similar circumstances. Almost all had been taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital where staff routinely minimized their bruises and injuries, in medical reports, ostensibly to cover and protect the police. One man related that a close friend who works as a correction officer at the County Jail, told him, “Personnel at the jail can always identify persons who have been arrested in Yonkers because they are usually so badly bruised and beaten.”

Attorneys Randolph McLaughlin and Debra Cohen were also present at the session, together with three Pace University Law students to sit with and gather information for possible forwarding to state, and federal authorities, and for possible criminal and civil litigation. Each speaker upon delivering their experience, proceeded to sit with the attorneys who took their particulars and offered legal advice as to their possible options.

It was clear that those who had come forward comprised a very small fraction of those individuals who have been brutalized by the Yonkers Police Department, in just the last few years. Given the trauma and the fear of most of the victims, it was a remarkably large turn out indeed; one which clearly highlighted the need for a federal investigation by the United States Department of Justice.

It is not altogether surprising to those who have been close to the criminal justice system and the courts of Westchester over many years, that there has been an everincreasing spate of unlawful and violent behavior within a number of police departments given the fact that the Chief Law Enforcement Officer, for twelve years, up until nine months ago, was DA Jeanine Pirro, a woman whose personal and professional conduct has always confirmed her belief that she is above the Law. Clearly, one who would enforce the Law must live by it.

Mother 72, Daughter 49, Charge Yonkers Police Brutality

Tina Bostwick, age 72, a lifelong resident of Yonkers, who grew up in the house next door to the one she lives in, behind Saunders High School, and her daughter, Mary 49, the business manager of a school district for disadvantaged children, are charging the Yonkers Police Department, and specfically, Police Officer Steven Gratzon, with Police Brutality.

The Bostwicks called THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN to their home near Palmer Road in Yonkers several days ago, because as they put, “We have nowhere else to turn.”

Sitting with these women for more than two hours it was plainly apparent to this reporter that neither had gotten over the horrific experience that they suffered nearly a year ago, at the hands of the Yonkers Police Department, nor from their subsequent treatment by the administration of Mayor Phil Amicone, and the City Court System.

Mary, the daughter, who was roughed-up, and manhandled, and denied her Constitutional Rights, is far from over the incident, or the administrative and judicial mishandling that followed. She is unable to discuss the matter at any length without crying, and would appear to be suffering Post Traumatic Stress.

The incident, that has literally turned this mother and daughter’s lives inside out, occurred on October28, 2005 at approximately 9:30 PM. They were relaxing at home when a young man, 19 came running to their door pleading with them to call the police because his 16-year-old friend who was standing with him, had been beaten by their neighbor across the street, and was bleeding profusely from the mouth and face. The Bostwicks immediately phoned for the police and began to administer first aid and comfort to the youngster.

As Tina Bostwick recalls she was surprised and pleased that the Yonkers Police, apparently responded quickly to their telephone call, in light of the fact that she and her neighbors had been complaining for some time about the slowness of Yonkers Police Department response and their frequent “failure to come out of their cars when they do come.” In fact, she and several members of the community had met, just three weeks earlier with Mayor Amicone, Police Commissioner Taggart, and other City officials at Saunders High School to air their concerns about police responsiveness and other issues.

She now believes that the police who promptly arrived at the scene were responding to an earlier call prompted by the fight that resulted in the teen’s head injuries.

Mary Bostwick states that she was attempting to speak with another officer about the injured youngster, on the sidewalk in front of her house, when Police Officer Steven Gratzon, grabbed her from behind, without provocation, handcuffed her and flung her into a police car. She sustained bruises to her arms and body, from Officer Gratzon, who she says “ turned into a madman.” While this was occurring, her 72-year-old mother, Tina was being shoved aside, and prevented from comforting her daughter, or even bringing her her shoes.

Mary Bostwick was locked up, and booked, and initially charged with Disorderly Conduct. She was held in custody for several hours, in the company of common criminals. What followed that horrific, violent night has further instilled fear and emotional distress in this mother and daughter. For one thing, as if in retaliation for earlier complaints, and also to gain leverage over them, the Yonkers Police Department upgraded the charge against Mary Bostwick to Obstructing Governmental Administration In The Second Degree, a violation of Penal Law PL 195.05, a misdemeanor.

Six days after the incident, on November 3rd, Sergeants Capalbo and Holden showed up at the Bostwick residence claiming that they were not there because of the incident, but rather because of the complaints registered at the public meeting with Mayor Amicone almost a month earlier. After telling thed two sergeants what had happened, and that they intended to file a report at the First Police Precinct, one of the sergeants responded, “It’s ninety-nine percent your report will never get past the Captain.”

Mary Bostwick appeared in Yonkers City Court expecting that Judge Duran after hearing what had actually occurred would dismiss the charges. But it did not turn out that way. She was advised to get a lawyer and return to answer the misdemeanor that her charges had been upgraded to. Jay Hashmall, former high-level assistant to Mayors Spencer and Amicone, got involved at this point, introducing her to his law partner Michael Bank, who was happy to accept her case for $3,500.

When she protested to he new attorneys that she had done nothing wrong, and wanted to fight the false charges against her, seeking a dismissal, Jay Hashmall who was careful to tell her to keep his name out of it, then advised her, “You’re better off taking an ACD, an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal. You know you could go to jail for one year.” Hashmall was not alone in his preference to protect, and cover-up the violent criminal actions of Officer Gratzon. Dee Barbado told the Bostwicks, “ Why don’t you move?”

The Bostwick women’s experience, while extreme, is by no means unique in dealings with the Yonkers Police Department. On August 21st of this year, an article in THE JOURNAL NEWS, headlined “ Yonkers Police Brutality Alleged” spoke of a meeting attended by Jim Bostic, Director of the Nepperhan Community Center, and Chairman of the Yonkers Violence and Gang Prevention Coalition, as well as Karen Edmonson, President of the Yonkers NAACP. This writer was in touch with each of those individuals, and was advised that Bostic would be conducting a meeting of the Coalition on Wednesday September 13th at the Riverfront Library in Yonkers, which District Attorney Janet DiFiore had agreed to attend.

Having attended that meeting which was, in fact, attended by the DA, her executive assistant Mr. George, Ken Davis, a Yonkers Police Department Youth Outreach Officer, and Captain Sal DiMaggio of the Fourth Precinct, I was disappointed that Mr. Bostic, as a matter of “organizational policy,” would not permit any questions from members of the Press to DA DiFiore. That was an unfortunate decision given the fact that the one hour of discussion which had occurred dealt mainly with the appropriateness of police interaction with youths who had been apprehended either in or out of school, and not necessarily with the overall problem of Police Brutality in the City of Yonkers.

In light of our newspaper’s call for intervention and decisive action by the Westchester District Attorney’s Office weeks ago, and the allegations which had appeared in the local media for many weeks earlier, including the case involving Rui Florim and Andrew Birkenfeld, that began at the Tyrone House Tavern in the City’s Waterfront District, combined with the information provided by the Bostwicks, THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN contacted District Attorney DiFiore through her spokesperson Lucian Chalfen. We posed the following three questions:

What is District Attorney DiFiore doing to address repeated allegations of Yonkers Police Brutality?
Has the District Attorney any intention of addressing the problem by looking into the specific claims of civilian victims?

What procedures, if any, have been put in place to deal with offending police officers?

The following responses were received from DA DiFiore’s Office:

ANYONE WHO FEELS THAT THEY HAVE BEEN THE VICTIM OF ANY FORM OF POLICE MISCONDUCT OR BRUTALITY IS ENCOURAGED TO REPORT THE INCIDENT.
THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S PUBLIC INTEGRITY BUREAU INVESTIGATES ALL ALLEGATIONSOF MISCONDUCT OR BRUTALITY, WHETHER REFERRED DIRECTLY FROM THE POLICE DEPARTMENT OR FROM A CIVILIAN COMPLAINANT.

COMPLAINTS WHICH ARE SUBSTANTIATED WILL RESULT IN APPROPRIATE ACTION BY THIS OFFICE, INCLUDING CRIMINAL PROSECUTION.

ANYONE WHO FEELS THAT THEY HAVE BEEN THE VICTIM OF EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE SHOULD CONTACT THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE AT 914-995-3420.

THE SIX HUNDRED PLUS MEN AND WOMEN WHO ARE THE YONKERS POLICE DEPARTMENT DESERVE THE CONFIDENCE AND RESPECT OF THE PEOPLE OF **YONKERS**. BY COMING FORWARD, VICTIMS OF ALLEGED BRUTALITY OR MISCONDUCT ARE NOT ONLY SPEAKING UP FOR THEMSELVES, BUT ALSO FOR THE INTEGRITY OF THE YPD AS WELL.

THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN goes on record to state that We believe the overwhelming majority of the six hundred, or so, police officers in the Yonkers Police Department are hardworking, honest, public servants, who daily go about their work in a lawful and respectful manner. However, there can be no denying, in the face of repeated allegations from credible victims, that there exists a certain small element, perhaps only a handful, no more than one percent of the force, who are not only criminally inflicting physical, and other, punishment upon citizens and residents, in violation of their Civil Rights, but also destroying the reputation and authority of the Department in the process.

These cases must not be swept under the rug, or bought off by City Government. Rui Florim a young man who was accosted and beaten by several Yonkers Police Officers in the Town of Greenburgh, required seventy stitches and five days in a hospital intensive care unit to recover. He is represented by Attorneys Tony Castro and Ravi Batra, who intend to bring the truth forward. Andrew Birkenfeld, who was likewise beaten and given a broken nose, is represented by Attorney Michael Romano, who will also be pursuing justice. These and several other cases will not simply go away, and We intend to follow their progress, and that of other victims, in an effort to keep our readers,and the Westchester Community, at large, informed.

THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN encourages our readers to come forward, if they, or someone they know have been the victim of police brutality anywhere in Westchester. We firmly believe that there is no place in a free society for that kind of unlawful and abusive treatment by persons entrusted to uphold the law!

Mother 72, Daughter 49, Charge Yonkers Police Brutality

By Richard Blassberg

Tina Bostwick, age 72, a lifelong resident of Yonkers, who grew up in the house next door to the one she lives in, behind Saunders High School, and her daughter, Mary 49, the business manager of a school district for disadvantaged children, are charging the Yonkers Police Department, and specifically, Police Officer Steven Gratzon, with Police Brutality. The Bostwicks called THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN to their home near Palmer Road in Yonkers several days ago, because as they put, “We have nowhere else to turn.”

Sitting with these women for more than two hours it was plainly apparent to this reporter that neither had gotten
over the horrific experience that they suffered nearly a year ago, at the hands of the Yonkers Police Department, nor from their subsequent treatment by the administration of Mayor Phil Amicone, and the City Court System.

Mary, the daughter, who was roughed-up, and manhandled, and denied her Constitutional Rights, is far
from over the incident, or the administrative and judicial mishandling that followed. She is unable to discuss the matter at any length without crying, and would appear to be suffering Post Traumatic Stress.

The incident, that has literally turned this mother and daughter’s lives inside out, occurred on O c t o b e r
28, 2005 at approxima t e l y 9:30PM. T h e y were rela x i n g at home when a y o u n g man, 19 came running
to their door pleading with them to call the police because his 16-year-old friend who was standing with him, had been beaten by their neighbor across the street, and was bleeding profusely from the mouth and face. The Bostwicks immediately phoned for the police and began to administer first aid and comfort to the youngster.

As Tina Bostwick recalls she was surpried and pleased that the Yonkers Police, apparently responded quickly to their telephone call, in light of the fact that she and her neighbors had been complaining for some time about the slowness of Yonkers Police Department response and their frequent “failure to come out of their cars when they do come.” In fact, she and several members of the community had met, just three weeks earlier with Mayor Amicone, Police Commissioner Taggart, and other City officials at Saunders High School to air their concerns about police responsiveness and other issues.

She now believes that the police who promptly arrived at the scene were r e s p o n d -ing to an earlier call
prompted by the fight that resulted in the teen’s head injuries. Mary Bostwick states that she was attempting
to speak with another officer about the injured youngster, on the sidewalk in front of her house, when Police
Officer Steven Gratzon, grabbed her from behind, without provocation, handcuffed her and flung her into a
police car. She sustained bruises to her arms and body, from Officer Gratzon, who she says “turned into a madman.” While this was occurring, her 72-year-old mother, Tina was being shoved aside, and prevented from comforting her daughter, or even bringing her her shoes.

Mary Bostwick was locked up, and booked, and initially charged with Disorderly Conduct. She was held in
custody for several hours, in the company of common criminals. What followed that horrific, violent night
has further instilled fear and emotional distress in this mother and daughter. For one thing, as if in retaliation
for earlier complaints, and also to gain leverage over them, the Yonkers Police Department upgraded the
charge against Mary Bostwick to Obstructing Governmental Administration In The Second Degree, a violation
of Penal Law PL 195.05, a misdemeanor. Six days after the incident, on November 3rd, Sergeants Capalbo and Holden showed up at the Bostwick residence claiming that they were not there because of the incident, but rather because of the complaints registered at the public meeting with Mayor Amicone almost a month earlier. After telling thed two sergeants what had happened, and that they intended to file a report at the First Police Precinct,
one of the sergeants responded, “It’s ninety-nine percent your report will never get past the Captain.”

Mary Bostwick appeared in Yonkers City Court expecting that Judge Duran after hearing what had actually
occurred would dismiss the charges. But it did not turn out that way. She was advised to get a lawyer and return to answer the misdemeanor that her charges had been upgraded to. Jay Hashmall, former high-level assistant
to Mayors Spencer and Amicone, got involved at this point, introducing her to his law partner Michael Bank, who was happy to accept her case for $3,500.

When she protested to he new attorneys that she had done nothing wrong, and wanted to fight the false charges against her, seeking a dismissal, Jay Hashmall who was careful to tell her to keep his name out of it, then advised her, “You’re better off taking an ACD, an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal. You know you could go to jail for one year.” Hashmall was not alone in his preference to protect, and cover-up the violent criminal actions
of Officer Gratzon. Dee Barbado told the Bostwicks, “Why don’t you move?”

The Bostwick women’s experience, while extreme, is by no means unique in dealings with the Yonkers Police Department. On August 21st of this year, an article in THE JOURNAL NEWS, headlined “Yonkers Police Brutality Alleged” spoke of a meeting attended by Jim Bostic, Director of the Nepperhan Community Center, and Chairman of the Yonkers Violence and Gang Prevention Coalition, as well as Karen Edmonson, President of the Yonkers NAACP. This writer was in touch with each of those individuals, and was advised that Bostic
would be conducting a meeting of the Coalition on Wednesday September 13th at the Riverfront Library in Yonkers, which District Attorney Janet DiFiore had agreed to attend.

Having attended that meeting which was, in fact, attended by the DA, her executive assistant Mr. George, Ken Davis, a Yonkers Police Department Youth Outreach Officer, and Captain Sal DiMaggio of the Fourth Precinct, I was disappointed that Mr. Bostic, as a matter of “organizational policy,” would not permit any questions from members of the Press to DA DiFiore. That was an unfortunate decision given the fact that the one hour of discussion which had occurred dealt mainly with the appropriateness of police interaction with youths who had been apprehended either in or out of school, and not necessarily with the overall problem of Police Brutality in
the City of Yonkers.

In light of our newspaper’s call for intervention and decisive action by the Westchester District Attorney’s Office weeks ago, and the allegations which had appeared in the local media for many weeks earlier, including the case involving Rui Florim and Andrew Birkenfeld, that began at the Tyrone House Tavern in the City’s Waterfront District, combined with the information provided by the Bostwicks, THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN contacted District Attorney DiFiore through her spokesperson Lucian Chalfen.

We posed the following three questions: What is District Attorney DiFiore doing to address repeated allegations of Yonkers Police Brutality? Has the District Attorney any intention of addressing the problem by looking into the specific claims of civilian victims? What procedures, if any, have been put in place to deal with offending police officers? The following responses were received from DA DiFiore’s Office: ANYONE WHO FEELS THAT THEY HAVE BEEN THE VICTIM OF ANY FORM OF POLICE MISCONDUCT OR BRUTALITY IS ENCOURAGED TO REPORT THE INCIDENT. THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S PUBLIC INTEGRITY
BUREAU INVESTIGATES ALL ALLEGATIONS OF MISCONDUCT OR BRUTALITY, WHETHER REFERRED DIRECTLY FROM THE POLICE DEPARTMENT OR FROM A CIVILIAN COMPLAINANT.

COMPLAINTS WHICH ARE SUBSTANTIATED WILL RESULT IN APPROPRIATE ACTION BY THIS OFFICE, INCLUDING CRIMINAL PROSECUTION.

ANYONE WHO FEELS THAT THEY HAVE BEEN THE VICTIM OF EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE SHOULD CONTACT THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE AT 914-995-3420.


THE SIX HUNDRED PLUS MEN AND WOMEN WHO ARE THE YONKERS POLICE DEPARTMENT
DESERVE THE CONFIDENCE AND RESPECT OF THE PEOPLE OF **YONKERS**. BY COMING FORWARD, VICTIMS OF ALLEGED BRUTALITY OR MISCONDUCT ARE NOT ONLY SPEAKING UP FOR THEMSELVES, BUT ALSO FOR THE INTEGRITY OF THE YPD AS WELL.

THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN goes on record to state that We believe the overwhelming majority of
the six hundred, or so, police officers in the Yonkers Police Department are hardworking, honest, public servants, who daily go about their work in a lawful and respectful manner. However, there can be no denying,
in the face of repeated allegations from credible victims, that there exists a certain small element, perhaps only
a handful, no more than one percent of the force, who are not only criminally inflicting physical, and other,
punishment upon citizens and residents, in violation of their Civil Rights, but also destroying the reputation
and authority of the Department in the process.

These cases must not be swept under the rug, or bought off by City Government. Rui Florim a young
man who was accosted and beaten by several Yonkers Police Officers in the Town of Greenburgh, required
seventy stitches and five days in a hospital intensive care unit to recover. He is represented by Attorneys Tony Castro and Ravi Batra, who intend to bring the truth forward. Andrew Birkenfeld, who was likewise beaten and given a broken nose, is represented by Attorney Michael Romano, who will also be pursuing justice. These and several other cases will not simply go away, and We intend to follow their progress, and that of other victims, in an effort to keep our readers, and the Westchester Community, at large, informed.

THE WESTCHESTER GUARDIAN encourages our readers to come forward, if they, or someone they
know have been the victim of police brutality anywhere in Westchester. We firmly believe that there is no place
in a free society for that kind of unlawful and abusive treatment by persons entrusted to uphold the law!