An undercover NYPD cop who rode with bikers involved in the vicious West Side Highway beatdown of New York SUV driver Alex Lien isn’t expected to be charged in the incident, according to his lawyer.
Internal Affairs Bureau undercover Matthew Rodriguez, 28, met for about an hour Tuesday with Manhattan prosecutors and told them he had left the ride early and was “nowhere near the scene” of the assault, and hadn’t participated in anything illegal, his lawyer Pat Bonanno, told reporters.
“It appears that the District Attorney’s Office will discover, as we have known from day one, that there are no acts of criminality on behalf of Matthew Rodriguez,” Bonanno told the Journal News, adding that videotape backed up Rodriguez’s account.
Rodriguez said he was glad “to be given the opportunity to say my piece.”
“It’s been pretty difficult, but I’m taking it one day at a time,” he said.
The cop, a member of New Rochelle-based biker club Front Line Soldiers, was one of several off duty officers riding in a Sept. 29 rally that spun out of control after a Range Rover driven by Lien bumped a biker and ran over him on the Henry Hudson Parkway. A pack of the motorcycle riders took off after Lien, smashed his windows, dragged him from the car and beat him in front of his horrified wife and small child.
A fellow off-duty cop and Front Line rider, Wojciech Braszczok, was arrested October 8 on assault, riot and criminal mischief charges for taking part in the attack. Authorities said he was shown on video hitting and kicking the SUV.
Meanwhile, CBS’s John Miller reported that “there will be” other undercover officers coming forward in the road rage incident.
Yahoo Local News – New York Post
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