One of New York’s Finest used a pair of handcuffs to pummel a man’s face during a bloody Bedford-Stuyvesant traffic stop last year, according to a lawsuit against the city and the cop alleging excessive force.
Officer Julio Ramos pulled 21-year-old Ricardo Mendoza’s BMW to the side of Flushing Avenue near Nostrand Avenue after spotting him speeding in April, 2018, according to the suit.
Before exiting his unmarked cruiser, a body camera worn by Ramos recorded him directing two other cops to approach Mendoza’s car with their weapons drawn.
“Yo, we’re jumping out and f—ing everybody right now,” said Ramos “Yo everybody go to one fucking car, bro. Guns out. F— this.”
The three lawmen surround Mendoza’s vehicle and repeatedly ordered him to exit his car, but the driver refused to leave, asking why they pulled their guns out over a speeding violation, the footage shows.
“You’ve got your gun out, for what?” said Mendoza. “What’d I do?”
Ramos gave the man several warnings, before opening the car door, dragging Mendoza out of the driver’s seat, and then using his handcuffs to slug the plaintiff in the face as his partners held him down, according to the suit.
The attack itself is obscured on cameras worn by Ramos and another officer, but cellphone footage obtained by the plaintiff’s attorneys shows Mendoza bleeding profusely from his face.
Following the arrest, Ramos could be heard telling another officer the plaintiff attacked him, saying “I put hands on him, he started fighting back,” but Mendoza’s suit claims he at no point resisted arrest.
Authorities slapped Mendoza with multiple charges related to the incident, but dropped all criminal complaints in the months following the arrest.
Mendoza filed suit against Ramos — who still patrols Brooklyn streets for the 79th Precinct — in Kings County Supreme Court on May 30, accusing the officer of using excessive force during the incident. He then filed an amended lawsuit last week against New York City, alleging a pattern of improper training and oversight of the police force by the city.
Mendoza’s lawyer, Abraham Rubert-Schewel, said Mendoza suffers from possible long-term nerve damage as a result of the beating.
Rubert-Schewel pointed to a 2015 Inspector General report that incriminates the Police Department for “failure to properly instruct and employ de-escalation tactics” as evidence in their case against the city.
The police department’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
