Complaint #201608641,
October 4, 2016

Summary

On October 4, 2016, [redacted] and [redacted] were riding the St. George bound Staten Island train when they were instructed to get off by PO Daniel Commender and PO Gregory Fortunato of the 123rd Precinct. The civilians complied and were allegedly met by Lt. Anthony Pizzo and Sgt. Nikolaos Stefopoulos of the same command on the platform (Allegations A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, and I). Sgt. Stefopouls searched [redacted]s purse where he recovered three pieces of a Xanax tablet in a plastic wrapper. One of the officers allegedly frisked and searched [redacted] and found Suboxone tablets on him (Allegations J and K). [redacted] was released since he had a prescription on him. [redacted] and [redacted] were handcuffed, and [redacted] inquired why they were being arrested, to which Sgt. Stefopoulos allegedly replied, "Shut your fucking mouth before you are stomped on" (Allegations L and M). [redacted] and [redacted] were transported to the 123rd Precinct stationhouse, where [redacted] was taken to the bathroom by Sgt. Stefopoulos, PO Commender and PO Fortunato. In the bathroom, Sgt. Stefopoulos allegedly told [redacted] if he was going to make a move he was going to drop [redacted] put him down and he would go to the hospital (Allegation N). After that, [redacted] was strip-searched by Sgt. Stefopoulos with assistance of PO Commender and PO Fortunato (Allegation O). [redacted] was arrested for criminal possession of controlled substance and having a controlled substance in a non-original container and was released with a desk appearance ticket. [redacted] was arrested for criminal possession of controlled substance with intent to sell, criminal sale of controlled substance, criminal possession of controlled substance and having a controlled substance in a non-original container and was taken to Staten Island Central Booking. No stop, question and frisk report was prepared for [redacted] by Sgt. Stefopoulos, PO Commender or PO Fortunato (Allegations P, Q, and R). Sgt. Stefopoulos failed to document the strip-search in... Read report for details.