A police oversight board has filed disciplinary charges with the NYPD against three cops accused of roughing up a 20-year-old Brooklyn man last year after he tossed an empty box of Mike and Ike’s candy on the sidewalk, according to a copy of the decision.
The Civilian Complaint Review Board forwarded the Aug.19 charges to the department after substantiating Manuel Morales’ allegations against the three 73rd Precinct cops for the April 22, 2023, caught-on-video encounter on Mother Gaston Blvd. near Sutter Ave in Brownsville.
“I got ID on me, why you hopping out on me?” Morales said.
Gardiner Anderson for New York Daily News
Manuel Morales in a 2023 photo in Brooklyn. (Gardiner Anderson for New York Daily News)
“Because you just littered,” Officer Robert Stosch said. “Yeah, you threw Mike and Ike’s on the floor.”
Tensions rose. Cops eventually used pepper spray on a gathering crowd shouting at the officers.
Police body camera video shows Morales was pushed into a wall and against a metal pipe. Stosch sits on his back after Morales is taken down by cops, and then he is cuffed and shoved into a patrol car.
Morales says he suffered a shoulder injury.
“CCRB’s determinations aren’t proof of anything except the investigators’ and board members’ rampant anti-police bias,” said PBA President Patrick Hendry: “These police officers are entitled to due process and a fair hearing when this matter is adjudicated by the NYPD.”
The case, first reported in the Daily News, was unusual because after the Brooklyn district attorney’s office declined to prosecute Morales the same day, the NYPD charged him again, this time with a noncriminal violation in Summons Court with Stosch acting as “prosecutor.”
Obtained by Daily News
Police body camera video obtained by The News captures Manuel Morales’ arrest last year for “littering”.
Morales had to make multiple appearances in that court over several months. The case was then dismissed as well.
“I was assaulted and wrongfully arrested publicly in my community,” he said in a statement. “Being prosecuted by the same person who assaulted me was a surreal experience that I don’t think any New Yorker should have to deal with again.”
Morales got a lawyer and filed a lawsuit in Brooklyn Federal Court in March.
“Mr. Morales still suffers from the injuries caused by these NYPD members, and he and all New Yorkers remain at risk so long as this behavior is tolerated and even modeled by NYPD and city officials,” said his lawyer MK Kaishian.
A police spokesman declined to comment on the CCRB decision citing the lawsuit. “The administrative process is ongoing,” the spokesman said.
The CCRB filed charges against Stosch for improper use of force, making an unlawful arrest, threats of force and abusing his authority by taking law enforcement action based on race.
Ramil Casimir was charged with making an illegal arrest and taking action based on race. And Joseph Guarrera was charged with using improper force.
Clare Platt, a CCRB spokeswoman, declined to comment on the findings.
The case will now wind its way through the disciplinary process, which could result in a negotiated plea or an eventual trial that could be handled by the CCRB’s Administrative Prosecution Unit or by the NYPD department advocate’s office.