Force: HANDCUFFS TOO TIGHT - The NYPD Files

Search Thousands of Civilian Complaints Against New York City Police Officers

This database was last updated in July 2020 and is no longer being updated. Data on this page may be out of date. For more recent information, visit the city's database of civilian complaints against the NYPD.

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Force: Handcuffs Too Tight

This page contains all allegations assigned to this category by the CCRB. Multiple similar allegations can appear for the same officer because a complaint received from a civilian can include multiple allegations.

Officers With Complaints

Complaints

Allegations

What the CCRB’s Conclusions Mean

Substantiated: The alleged conduct occurred and it violated the rules. (Here is a breakdown of the types of discipline the CCRB can recommend. The NYPD can choose to ignore those recommendations. It has discretion over what, if any, discipline is imposed.)

Exonerated: The alleged conduct occurred but did not violate the NYPD’s rules, which often give officers significant discretion over use of force.

Unsubstantiated: The CCRB has fully investigated but could not affirmatively conclude both that the conduct occurred and that it broke the rules.

Officer	Rank at Time of Complaint	Officer Details	Complainant Details	CCRB Conclusion	Year Received
Jonathan Rothenberg	Police Officer	White male	Black female, 45 years old	Unsubstantiated	2019
Michael Algerio	Police Officer	White male	Black male, 46 years old	Unsubstantiated	2019
Joseph Villarreal	Police Officer	Hispanic male	Black female, 34 years old	Unsubstantiated	2019
Katherine Sepulveda	Police Officer	Hispanic female	Black male, 36 years old	Unsubstantiated	2019
Fitzroy Vigilance	Sergeant	Black male	White male, 42 years old	Unsubstantiated	2018
Jonathan Rothenberg	Police Officer	White male	Unknown female, 45 years old	Unsubstantiated	2018
Jose Cordero	Police Officer	Hispanic male	Black male, 37 years old	Unsubstantiated	2018
Jose Cordero	Police Officer	Hispanic male	Black male, 37 years old	Unsubstantiated	2018
Malachi Mckenith	Police Officer	Black male	Hispanic male, 12 years old	Unsubstantiated	2018
Nicholas Albergo	Police Officer	Hispanic male	Black male, 28 years old	Unsubstantiated	2018
Aleksandr Kovalenko	Sergeant	White male	Black male, 36 years old	Unsubstantiated	2017
Jose Cadavid	Police Officer	Hispanic male	Black transman (ftm), 44 years old	Unsubstantiated	2017
Christophe Lembo	Police Officer	White male	Black male, 40 years old	Unsubstantiated	2016
Felix Baez	Police Officer	Hispanic male	Black male, 31 years old	Unsubstantiated	2016
Kelvin Peralta	Police Officer	Hispanic male	Black male, 24 years old	Unsubstantiated	2016
Francesco Cusimano	Police Officer	White male	Other Race male, 37 years old	Unsubstantiated	2015
John Mejia	Sergeant	Hispanic male	Black male, 49 years old	Substantiated (Charges)	2015
Michelle Maldonado	Police Officer	Hispanic female	Black male, 23 years old	Unsubstantiated	2015
Eric Duval	Police Officer	White male	Black male, 49 years old	Unsubstantiated	2015
Jorge Monge	Police Officer	Hispanic male	Hispanic male, 46 years old	Unsubstantiated	2015
Richard Young	Police Officer	White male	Black male, 19 years old	Unsubstantiated	2014
Nicholas Kourounis	Police Officer	White male	Hispanic female, 33 years old	Unsubstantiated	2014
Juan Torres	Police Officer	Hispanic male	Black male, 16 years old	Unsubstantiated	2014
Jose Vasquezmiranda	Police Officer	Hispanic male	Black male, 25 years old	Substantiated (Charges)	2014
Richard Ernyey	Police Officer	White male	Black male, 41 years old	Unsubstantiated	2014
Joel Crooms	Police Officer	Black male	Black male, 31 years old	Unsubstantiated	2014
Nelson Nin	Police Officer	Hispanic male	Black male, 32 years old	Unsubstantiated	2014
Paul Ortiz	Detective	Hispanic male	Hispanic male, 29 years old	Unsubstantiated	2014
Joseph Marquez	Detective	Hispanic male	Black male, 37 years old	Unsubstantiated	2013
Albert Aronov	Police Officer	White male	Hispanic male, 28 years old	Unsubstantiated	2013
Brian Alexander	Police Officer	White male	Black male, 46 years old	Unsubstantiated	2013
Eddy Gutierrez	Police Officer	Hispanic male	Hispanic male, 18 years old	Unsubstantiated	2013
Ernest Hernandez	Police Officer	Hispanic male	Black male, 27 years old	Unsubstantiated	2013
Genti Bektashaj	Police Officer	White male	Hispanic male, 39 years old	Substantiated (Charges)	2012
Megan Fortunato	Police Officer	White female	Black male, 18 years old	Unsubstantiated	2012
Jose Ramos	Police Officer	Hispanic male	Black male, 49 years old	Unsubstantiated	2012
Alfred Gallicchio	Sergeant	White male	Black male, 44 years old	Unsubstantiated	2012
Joseph Padula	Sergeant	White male	White male, 35 years old	Unsubstantiated	2011
Victor Rosa	Police Officer	Hispanic male	Hispanic male, 25 years old	Unsubstantiated	2011
Carlos Delgado	Police Officer	Hispanic male	White male, 24 years old	Unsubstantiated	2011
George Bonner	Police Officer	White male	Black female, 46 years old	Unsubstantiated	2011
Joseph Redmond	Sergeant	White male	Black male, 24 years old	Unsubstantiated	2011
Fitzroy Vigilance	Sergeant	Black male	Black male, 27 years old	Unsubstantiated	2011
Alberto Pizarro	Detective	Hispanic male	Hispanic female, 23 years old	Unsubstantiated	2011
Miguel Iglesias	Police Officer	Hispanic male	Black male, 57 years old	Unsubstantiated	2010
Christophe Vaccaro	Police Officer	White male	Hispanic male, 41 years old	Unsubstantiated	2010
Diery Louis	Police Officer	Black male	Black male, 40 years old	Unsubstantiated	2010
Jarrett Dill	Police Officer	Black male	Black female, 48 years old	Unsubstantiated	2010
Jose Ortiz	Sergeant	Hispanic male	Black male, 19 years old	Unsubstantiated	2010
Millicent Sempermartinez	Police Officer	Hispanic female	Black female, 18 years old	Unsubstantiated	2010
Flavio Rodriguez	Sergeant	Hispanic male	Not available male, 25 years old	Unsubstantiated	2010
Nicholas Albano	Police Officer	White male	Hispanic male, 17 years old	Unsubstantiated	2009
Jonathan Lovera	Police Officer	Hispanic male	Black male, 14 years old	Substantiated (Charges)	2009
Daniel Ludemann	Police Officer	White male	Hispanic male, 30 years old	Unsubstantiated	2009
Omar Habib	Police Officer	White male	Hispanic male, 40 years old	Unsubstantiated	2009
Terrell Anderson	Sergeant	Black male	Hispanic male, 15 years old	Exonerated	2009
Taiwo Adeleke	Police Officer	Black female	Black male, 28 years old	Unsubstantiated	2009
Erik Depasquale	Police Officer	White male	Other Race male, 23 years old	Unsubstantiated	2009
Erik Rubinstein	Police Officer	White male	Other Race male, 31 years old	Unsubstantiated	2009
Graham Brathwaite	Police Officer	Black male	Black male, 41 years old	Unsubstantiated	2008
Qamar Zaman	Police Officer	Asian male	White male, 16 years old	Unsubstantiated	2008
Nelly Vazquez	Police Officer	Hispanic female	Black male, 33 years old	Unsubstantiated	2008
Hairo Franco	Police Officer	Hispanic male	Black male, 33 years old	Substantiated (Command Discipline)	2008
Paul Brauer	Police Officer	White male	White female, 40 years old	Unsubstantiated	2008
Juan Pichardo	Police Officer	Hispanic male	Black male, 26 years old	Unsubstantiated	2007
Jose Caban	Police Officer	Hispanic male	Hispanic male, 17 years old	Unsubstantiated	2007
Frank Baldo	Police Officer	White male	Black male, 29 years old	Unsubstantiated	2006
Thomas Wright	Police Officer	Black male	Black male, 35 years old	Unsubstantiated	2005
John Andryuk	Police Officer	White male	Black male, 29 years old	Unsubstantiated	2005
James Slavin	Police Officer	White male	Black female, 34 years old	Unsubstantiated	2005
Joseph Stynes	Police Officer	White male	Black male, 20 years old	Unsubstantiated	2004
Thomas Morton	Police Officer	White male	White female, 49 years old	Unsubstantiated	2004
Keith Walker	Police Officer	White male	Black male, 14 years old	Exonerated	2003
Joseph Bonner	Police Officer	White male	White male, 24 years old	Unsubstantiated	2003
Derrick Milligan	Sergeant	Black male	Black male, 18 years old	Unsubstantiated	2003
Alexander Grandstaff	Police Officer	White male	Black male, 33 years old	Unsubstantiated	2002

About This Data

For decades, disciplinary records of police officers in New York have been shielded from public view. After the state recently repealed the law that had kept the records secret, ProPublica requested and received a database from New York City’s Civilian Complaint Review Board, which investigates allegations of misconduct against NYPD officers. The database lists the name of each officer, the race of the complainant and the officer, a category describing the alleged misconduct, and whether the CCRB concluded the officers’ conduct violated NYPD rules. Police unions have opposed New York City’s plan to make public data about disciplinary investigations.

This database names about 4,000 of the NYPD’s 36,000 active-duty officers. Every officer in the database has had at least one substantiated allegation. We excluded any allegations that CCRB investigators concluded did not occur and were deemed unfounded. We also removed a small number of officers (62) against whom the CCRB had substantiated allegations, but whose substantiated allegations had not gone fully through the NYPD’s administrative prosecution process. The CCRB was not able to reach conclusions in many cases, in part because the investigators must rely on the NYPD to hand over crucial evidence, such as footage from body-worn cameras. Often, the department is not forthcoming despite a legal duty to cooperate in CCRB investigations. The CCRB gets thousands of complaints per year but substantiates a tiny fraction of them. Allegations of criminal conduct by officers are typically investigated not by the CCRB but by state or federal prosecutors in conjunction with the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau or the FBI. The NYPD’s own findings in cases in this database are not included here.

Read more about what we’ve included in the database and why, and see our answers to questions we have received about this data. If you have information about any of these officers or cases, please fill out our form.

All of the records in this data are from closed cases. But if you see an error, contact the CCRB. If the agency updates its records and lets us know, we'll do so as well.

The data used in this database is downloadable from ProPublica’s Data Store.

Source

This data was obtained through a records request made to the CCRB. It includes fully investigated allegations only for officers who were members of the department as of late June 2020 and against whom the CCRB has substantiated at least one allegation.