Brooklyn cops who were sued the most also raked in overtime pay, study says

May 2, 2019 Noah Goldberg

AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews

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NYPD officers who work the most overtime are sued at a higher rate – and several of the worst offenders are Brooklyn cops, a study by the Legal Aid Society found.

Sergeant David Grieco – aka Bullethead – who works in East New York’s 75th Precinct, was named a defendant in lawsuits 12 times between 2015 and 2017, resulting in over $150,000 in payouts. During that span, he was consistently in the 99th percentile of overtime earners for his rank, according to the Legal Aid Society’s analysis.

“These data show that the department allows its officers to rake in unlimited overtime without much concern for the lawsuits filed against them by New Yorkers alleging misconduct,” said Julie Ciccolini, analyst with the Special Litigation Unit at the Legal Aid Society. “Our analysis makes it apparent once again that providing a monetary motivation to make arrests will result in more abusive and unconstitutional policing.”

Officers who were named in five or more lawsuits averaged 406 yearly hours of overtime between 2015 and 2018, the study found. Cops who were not named in any lawsuits averaged almost 200 fewer yearly overtime hours.

CAPstat is a database of publicly available lawsuits compiled by the Legal Aid Society alleging civil rights violations filed against the NYPD in federal court. The data is limited to lawsuits filed between January 2015 and June 2018.

Three of the five notable officers cited in the Legal Aid Society’s study were from Brooklyn.

Detective Francesco Allevato, who worked 423 overtime hours in the fiscal year 2015, was once sued for allegedly tackling a man to the ground and arresting him for recording officers tackling another man to the ground. That lawsuit was settled for $38,500.

Allevato works for Brooklyn North Narcotics and was sued six times in 2015 alone, according to CAPstat data.

Detective Waliur Rahman, who also works for Brooklyn North Narcotics, worked an average of 607 hours of overtime between 2015 and 2017. That ranks in the 97th percentile for a second grade detective, according to the study. During that time he was named in 12 lawsuits, according to CAPstat data.

Rahman was promoted to first grade detective in 2018.

More than 50 Brooklyn police officers were named in lawsuits four or more times between 2015 and 2018, and the vast majority of lawsuits against cops were filed against Brooklyn officers. The city’s five most sued precincts were all in Brooklyn, according to CAPstat data.