Complaint #200305827,
July 26, 2003

Summary

[redacted] s first statements regarding this incident were recorded by the medical staff at [redacted], where he sought treatment on [redacted] [redacted] stated that he was "handcuffed on Friday night and alleges that the police were very tough with him and he was lifted with cuffs" (enc. 23e). On [redacted] sought treatment from an orthopedic surgeon, [redacted], who prepared a letter regarding his diagnosis. [redacted] notes [redacted] s complaint that his "handcuffs were on exquisitely tight despite him asking them (the police) to loosen them and this was not done" (enc. 23q).
On July 29, 2003, [redacted] appeared at the CCRB to file a complaint regarding the circumstances surrounding his July 26, 2003 arrest. [redacted] explained that he was arrested at approximately 2:30 AM on Saturday July 26, having exited Manhattan's "Mercury Bar," located on 3rd Avenue between 34th and 33rd Streets (see photographs, enc. 26c). [redacted] was with friends [redacted] and [redacted] and estimated that they had been inside the bar for approximately an hour during which he and his friends had had one (hard alcohol) drink apiece: none of them were intoxicated. After exiting the bar, a homeless man asked the group to buy a newspaper from him. Immediately after [redacted] gave the man a dollar, two uniformed officers exited a marked police car and asked what the group had received from the man. [redacted] stated that he was then "bum rushed" by the two officers, whom he later identified after reading their nameplates: PO Dennis Morgano and PO Joseph Bonner, both assigned to the Midtown South Precinct. [redacted] The officers "pushed" [redacted] backward by his chest so that his back was against the wall near a pizzeria (The Brick Oven Pizza 33, see photographs, enc. 26c). [redacted] was handcuffed "right away," prompting him to question why he was being handcuffed and whether he was arrested: [redacted] also stated that [redacted] felt that his handcuffs were "very tight" – as such, he began asking the officers to loosen the... Read report for details.