By William K. Rashbaum, The New York Times
Three police officers in Brooklyn were formally charged yesterday with beating a cabdriver after giving him a traffic ticket for double-parking near a mosque in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Two of the officers were also charged with perjury for giving false sworn complaints accusing the man of attacking them.
The officers - James Feola, 32, Gregory Hepp, 31, and Francis Sanzone, 35 - were arraigned on the charges in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn before Acting Justice John P. Walsh, who released them on their own recognizance.
Each of the three men, who are assigned to the 79th Precinct in Brooklyn, was charged with a single count of second-degree assault, a felony. Officers Hepp and Feola were also charged with second- and third-degree perjury, a felony and a misdemeanor, for submitting false charges against the cabdriver, Boris Nkari, 31, who was initially arrested for assault and other charges that were later dismissed. If convicted of the assault, the most serious charge, they could face seven years in prison.
The authorities say the beating happened on March 8 outside a mosque on Fulton Street. Nkari, of Brooklyn, was in the cab before evening prayers when one of the officers gave him a $115 ticket for double-parking. When one of the officers threw his insurance card on the ground, for reasons that remain unclear, Nkari told them to put the ticket on his windshield, which apparently enraged the officers, officials said. According to the officers’ account, an official said, Nkari, described by his lawyer as 5 feet 2 and 120 pounds, refused to take the ticket, punched and kicked Officer Feola and knocked Officer Hepp to the ground.
Charles M. Guria, the executive assistant district attorney from the Rackets Bureau, who is overseeing the case, said after the arraignment that the officers had assaulted Nkari. “The evidence shows that first they beat him and kicked him, and then they hit him with lies,” he said, referring to the accusations that two of the officers brought false charges.
But Patrick J. Lynch, the president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, the union that represents police officers, said the officers would be exonerated. “What you’ll find as we move forward in this case is that these police officers will be vindicated and the facts in the case will be what vindicates them,” he said.