SKETCHES OF COURT: Jury upholds ruling in NYPD brutality trial

June 23, 2015 By Alba Acevedo Special to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Court sketch by Alba Acevedo

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In this courtroom sketch, Hon. Bernard Graham listens as plaintiff’s attorney Lawrence Levine (standing) delivers his summation to the jury in the police brutality trial Jones v. City of New York and the NYC Police Department. At issue in the trial was the claim of excessive force, sexual assault and false arrest.

Approximately 10 to 12 police, wearing bunker shields and with weapons drawn, entered an apartment in May 2009 at 7 a.m. to execute a search warrant in the expectation of finding drugs. Inside the three-bedroom apartment were several adults and children, including the plaintiff who was in bed asleep. She claims she was struck in the head and teeth, and dragged to a bathroom and sodomized by a female officer, who inserted her hand into the plaintiff’s vagina to search for drugs.

There were no drugs on her person, but drugs including heroin, methadone and marijuana were found in several open and common apartment areas.

The children were removed from the scene to a relative’s care, and all adults were charged with possession.

The plaintiff alleges that she was pregnant at the time, and that the rough handling was a direct cause of a subsequent miscarriage. The plaintiff’s attorney made an impassioned appeal to the jury to send a message that police must be better trained to strip-search to avoid the horrendous and repulsive handling his client endured.

The jury, however, returned a verdict for the defendants, represented by attorney Michael Reddy, Jr. (seated, right) of the city’s Corporation Counsel. The all-female jury determined that no sexual assault occurred, and that the police did not use excessive force.

The charge of false arrest was dismissed by the court before summations, in the trial that concluded last week in Kings County Civil Term. Court reporter George Davila (seated, center) transcribed the proceedings.