A teen testified Thursday that when he was 11 years old, a police officer tackled him, cuffed his wrists and arrested him as he ran away from a chaotic skirmish on a street, even though he hadn’t broken the law.
At a disciplinary hearing at NYPD headquarters, the boy said he pleaded with the officer not to take him into custody that night in the Bronx in 2019.
“I’m just a kid,” the youth, now 16, recalled yelling.
Lt. Francy Monestime, the officer who arrested him, now faces disciplinary charges. The city’s police watchdog agency, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, investigated the incident and found he used excessive force, unlawfully stopped and arrested the boy, and lied to investigators.
An attorney for the watchdog group is presenting evidence to an administrative judge to prove Monestime acted improperly. NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban will ultimately decide whether Monestime should face discipline. A department spokesperson declined to comment on the case, other than to say the disciplinary process remains ongoing.
The lieutenant’s attorney, Marissa Gillespie, said her client was acting “in good faith” as he responded to an escalating situation where he believed someone had a gun. She also denied Monestime made false statements or tried to conceal what had happened.
“He told everybody that would listen what happened that day,” Gillespie said, adding Monestime wrote a four-page memo, filled out a stop report and other paperwork, consulted with the NYPD’s legal department and described what happened to the CCRB.
Monestime did not testify Thursday but is expected to speak at a future hearing.
On July 28, 2019, the 11-year-old and a couple of his friends were playing basketball on a fenced-in court in the Bronx when he heard a commotion and went to the sidewalk to see what was happening, he testified during the hearing. He said a group outside the court was yelling at police officers and throwing bottles at them.
The boy said he heard the officers call for backup, and when more police arrived, he watched as the crowd began to run, so he started running, too.
“I ran because there was a whole bunch of people running toward me,” he said. “And as an 11-year-old, I got scared.”
That’s when the boy said the officer ran toward him at full speed and slammed him to the ground, scraping his elbow and knee. Body camera footage from another officer at the scene shows the 11-year-old — then 5 foot inches and 135 pounds — sprawled over the brightly painted lines of a hopscotch court. Monestime — 6 foot 1 inch and 185 pounds — is shown on top of him.
Gillespie said her client was responding to a call for help from officers who said they had seen a man with a firearm. She said the officer chased and tackled the boy because he saw him running and assumed he had a gun.
Monestime cuffed the boy and looked for other officers to get more information, according to Gillespie. But the crowd was getting agitated, she said, and supervisors ordered everyone to clear out.
Another officer drove the boy to the precinct, where he was handcuffed to a bench and questioned about what happened, the boy testified. He said an officer also asked his name and his mother’s phone number.
About 30 minutes or an hour later, his mom picked him up. Law enforcement didn’t pursue charges against him.
After his arrest, the boy and his family left New York and moved to North Carolina “to be in a better environment,” he said.
Now in 10th grade, the teen video-conferenced into the courtroom at 1 Police Plaza in lower Manhattan. A close-up image of his face appeared on a large screen, a couple of short dreadlocks dangling over his forehead and into his eyes.
The teen said the incident traumatized him and left him feeling scared. He said he stopped playing basketball and going to the park until he moved away; and he still gets nervous whenever he sees police.
“I was arrested, and I wasn’t supposed to be arrested,” he said. “I was a kid arrested.”
The boy’s family sued the city, which agreed to a $150,000 settlement, according to court testimony.
Department records show Monestime has since been promoted to lieutenant and works in the NYPD’s management analysis section. Out of four civilian complaints he has received since joining the department in 2008, this is the first investigators have substantiated, meaning they found evidence of policy violations.
Monestime has also received six awards for excellent or meritorious police duty, according to his officer profile on the NYPD’s website.
Monestime is currently pursuing a law degree at Fordham University Law School, where he recently published a law review article criticizing the CCRB for publishing unsubstantiated complaints against NYPD officers. His article argued the watchdog agency’s database of complaints may be contributing to an exodus of officers from the department and could “taint” police who have not actually violated policy.
Leave a Reply