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Fast Money & Foreign Objects
Two New York Detectives Charged for Beating Uniformed Postal Worker After Year of Routine Intimidation
By Elliot Hannon
A police car looks out over Manhattan on October 29, 2012.
Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Two New York police detectives were charged Wednesday with assault for dragging a 26-year-old Queens postal worker from his car and beating him in Oct. 2015. The beating of Karim Baker, who sustained spinal fractures and knee injuries severe enough that he has not been able to return to work, were part of year-long, deliberate harassment of Baker by the police, according to his lawyer. The reason? Nearly a year earlier, in Dec. 2014, Baker gave directions to a stranger on the street who then went on to kill two police officers. Baker was questioned by the authorities during the investigation and subsequently stopped by police 20 times over the next 10 months, according to his lawyer.
Here’s more on the alleged harassment and beating from the New York Times:
[The district attorney] and [Karim Baker’s attorney] Mr. [Eric] Subin said the detectives approached Mr. Baker as he left work on Oct. 21, 2015, in Corona, Queens. Mr. Subin said the encounter was captured on surveillance video from a building across the street, and had been paired with audio from a 911 call from Mr. Baker’s cellphone that recorded what occurred. Mr. Subin said the officers had asked to see his client’s identification and when he asked why he was being stopped, the officers told him he was parked too close to a fire hydrant. Mr. Baker then called 911 to ask for help, but he dropped the phone when the officers began pummeling him, Mr. Subin said. The district attorney said Mr. Baker was seated in his car when the detectives punched and kicked him multiple times in the face and body and dragged him from the vehicle.
The district attorney said the video of the incident showed Baker was parked some 15 feet from the fire hydrant. In the immediate aftermath of the beating, Baker was charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and criminal possession of a controlled substance. Once the surveillance video surfaced, those charges were dismissed.
“Mr. Baker initiated a lawsuit in November naming the city, the Police Department and the individual officers,” according to the Times. The two detectives—Angelo Pampena, 31, and Robert Carbone, 29—have been suspended without pay and face up to seven years in prison, if convicted. Both pleaded not guilty; Pampena’s lawyer said the video shows the detectives use of force was “reasonable under the circumstances.”
Two New York Detectives Charged for Beating Uniformed Postal Worker After Year of Routine Intimidation
This is a completely new case other than the one that happened in Crown Heights most recently.
By Elliot Hannon
A police car looks out over Manhattan on October 29, 2012.
Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Two New York police detectives were charged Wednesday with assault for dragging a 26-year-old Queens postal worker from his car and beating him in Oct. 2015. The beating of Karim Baker, who sustained spinal fractures and knee injuries severe enough that he has not been able to return to work, were part of year-long, deliberate harassment of Baker by the police, according to his lawyer. The reason? Nearly a year earlier, in Dec. 2014, Baker gave directions to a stranger on the street who then went on to kill two police officers. Baker was questioned by the authorities during the investigation and subsequently stopped by police 20 times over the next 10 months, according to his lawyer.
Here’s more on the alleged harassment and beating from the New York Times:
[The district attorney] and [Karim Baker’s attorney] Mr. [Eric] Subin said the detectives approached Mr. Baker as he left work on Oct. 21, 2015, in Corona, Queens. Mr. Subin said the encounter was captured on surveillance video from a building across the street, and had been paired with audio from a 911 call from Mr. Baker’s cellphone that recorded what occurred. Mr. Subin said the officers had asked to see his client’s identification and when he asked why he was being stopped, the officers told him he was parked too close to a fire hydrant. Mr. Baker then called 911 to ask for help, but he dropped the phone when the officers began pummeling him, Mr. Subin said. The district attorney said Mr. Baker was seated in his car when the detectives punched and kicked him multiple times in the face and body and dragged him from the vehicle.
The district attorney said the video of the incident showed Baker was parked some 15 feet from the fire hydrant. In the immediate aftermath of the beating, Baker was charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and criminal possession of a controlled substance. Once the surveillance video surfaced, those charges were dismissed.
“Mr. Baker initiated a lawsuit in November naming the city, the Police Department and the individual officers,” according to the Times. The two detectives—Angelo Pampena, 31, and Robert Carbone, 29—have been suspended without pay and face up to seven years in prison, if convicted. Both pleaded not guilty; Pampena’s lawyer said the video shows the detectives use of force was “reasonable under the circumstances.”
Two New York Detectives Charged for Beating Uniformed Postal Worker After Year of Routine Intimidation
This is a completely new case other than the one that happened in Crown Heights most recently.
