By Rocco Parascandola
Newsday
NEW YORK — The disorderly conduct summons issued to Michael Mineo clearly states police officers identified him by his New York State public assistance benefits card.
But Mineo - the 24-year-old tattoo parlor employee who has accused police of sodomizing him on the afternoon of Oct. 15 on a Brooklyn subway platform - may not have been carrying any identification on him at the time, say police and other sources familiar with the investigation.
The discrepancy, one of many yet to be reconciled in the case, raises questions about exactly what happened that day at the Prospect Park station in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, sources familiar with the investigation say.
Mineo was confronted outside the station for smoking marijuana, then ran off and resisted arrest when police caught him inside the station, the New York Police Department said. Mineo said he was beaten and violated with a police radio by Officer Alex Cruz, one of four 71st Precinct officers now the subject of an investigative grand jury inquiry.
Mineo was hospitalized initially for five days after the altercation and was admitted last week to another hospital, where he remains.
The summons appears to be written by one of the other officers at the scene and accuses Mineo of acting “disorderly by blocking vehicle and ped. traffic, causing public alarm and fear.”
It also seems to be defective, as it instructs Mineo to fight the charge in court, if he chooses not to plead guilty, on Jan. 2, 2008, nine months before the incident happened.
Police often arrest those who resist them even on minor offenses, police sources say. But if Mineo was not carrying proper identification, under NYPD guidelines, he should have been arrested and put through the system.
Even if he did have the benefits card on him, as it states on the summons, it is still not clear why the officers did not arrest Mineo, as he was wanted on two warrants.
One warrant was issued in Brooklyn on Aug. 13, 2007, after Mineo failed to appear in court for a summons he had received because police said he was drinking alcohol from an open container. The other was issued in Lancaster County, Pa., when he failed to show up in court in a stolen credit card case from 2003.
The four officers are on administrative duty working inside the precinct. Police have not identified the other officers, though sources say one, Cruz’s partner, is Officer Noel Jugraj. Cruz and Jugraj could not be reached.
Copyright 2008 Newsday