Complaint #201901368,
February 2, 2019

Summary

On February 2, 2019, at approximately 3 p.m., at the intersection of [redacted] in the Bronx, PO Tara Convery and PO Jose Cepeda, both of the 52nd Precinct at the time of this incident, stopped [redacted] who was in a car with [redacted] for driving with excessive tints (Allegations A and B: Abuse of Authority – Vehicle Stop, [redacted]). PO Cepeda asked [redacted] to step out of the car, and, as soon as [redacted] got out of the car, PO Cepeda patted down the exterior of his clothes (Allegation C: Abuse of Authority – Frisk, [redacted]) and reached into his pockets, removing two cell phones (Allegation D: Abuse of Authority – Search (of person), [redacted]). At the same time, PO Convery looked inside the interior of the car (Allegation E: Abuse of Authority Vehicle Search, [redacted]). When PO Convery was looking in the back-passenger area of the car, she allegedly damaged a cup holder located within the back-seating panel of the car (Allegation F: Abuse of Authority – Property Damage, [redacted]).
PO Cepeda and PO Convery drove [redacted] and [redacted] back to the 52nd Precinct stationhouse, where Sgt. Rivera authorized PO Cepeda and PO Ryan Lawrence, also of the 52nd Precinct, to perform strip-searches of both [redacted] and [redacted] (Allegations G and H: Abuse of Authority – Strip-Search, [redacted]).
The CCRB found evidence suggesting that Sgt. Rivera provided a false official statement on December 18, 2019, when he provided a memo book (BR 01) which included entries not contained in the memo book obtained earlier from IAB (BR 02). (Allegation L: Other Misconduct – False Official Statement). This was referred to IAB under CCRB case number 201910831 on December 24, 2019.
[redacted] (BR 03 and BR 04) and [redacted] (BR 05) were both arrested as a result of this incident. Read report for details.