He was busted with a loaded gun – and now he wants $ 3 million from the city.
Repeat firearms felon Andrew James had a gun possession rap tossed last year after an NYPD cop allegedly lied under oath about following proper search protocols – and now he’s suing the department for millions, according to a stunning lawsuit filed in Brooklyn federal court Thursday.
James, 36, of Valley Stream, was pulled over in a Cadillac Escalade in Queens in March 2012 by three plainclothes officers for crossing a double yellow line, according to the suit.
The officers — Andrew Torres, Jason Forgione, and James Phillips — said they smelled marijuana in the car after the stop and found a knife, $ 10,000 in cash in the center console and a police scanner, according to court papers.
James’ criminal attorney, Robert DiDio, told The Post that Torres then handcuffed James and drove off with him in a squad car.
Forgione and Phillips remained at the scene and searched underneath the hood of James’ Escalade and hit paydirt — a loaded .40-caliber Smith and Wesson handgun hidden in a pillow case, court papers state.
The two officers exchanged high fives after the score — but soon realized that legal protocols called for the search to take place at their precinct and not at the scene, the suit states.
“So they concocted the story that they took the car to the precinct and conducted the search there,” DiDio said. “They made up the story and Torres repeated it to a grand jury and to a judge in a pre-trial hearing.”
Skeptical that the cops had followed legal procedure, DiDio sent out a private investigator to the scene of the crime and canvassed the neighborhood to find anyone who might have seen the incident.
The attorney hit his own paydirt — a man across the street had filmed the entire arrest that showed the officers improperly searching James’ car at the scene, the lawyer told the Post.
Later, at a Queens pre-trial hearing in front of Judge Robert Kohm, DiDio faced off against Torres in court.
Not knowing that the attorney had the video, Torres swore under oath that the search took place at the precinct, the suit states.
“He didn’t know what I had,” DiDio said in recalling the TV-ready exchange. “So I asked him clearly. I asked him if he was absolutely, 100-percent sure that the he conducted the search at the precinct. He said yes.”
The lawyer dropped his bomb and told Torres that he had a video that proved otherwise.
“He just started babbling,” DiDio recalled. “I told him, ‘I think you need to hire an attorney.’”
The lawyer’s video showed two officers — not Torres — searching the vehicle at the scene and slapping celebratory high fives after the gun discovery.
Judge Kohm immediately halted the proceeding and advised the officer to seek legal counsel for possible perjury, court papers state.
With their case crippled, the Queens DA dropped the charges against James and he beat the case entirely.
In his lawsuit, the married father — who has one prior gun possession bust in 2000 and an attempted gun possession rap from 1993 — is seeking $ 3 million for falsification of evidence and malicious prosecution.
DiDio, who even managed to get most of his client’s cash back, said that despite clear evidence that the officers had lied about the incident, no charges were ever brought.
“I think that’s outrageous,” he said. “They should be indicted.”
A source close to the case noted the bitter irony that possessing a gun could lead to a multimillion-dollar windfall for James.
“It’s an unbelievable case,” he said. “The fact that this guy not only gets off when he has a loaded gun but is now suing is is just unfathomable.”
The Queens DA’s office would not comment on the case.
An NYPD spokesman declined to comment except to say there is an ongoing Internal Affairs investigation into the case.
Yahoo Local News – New York Post
http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info/?p=15003
via Great Local News: New York http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info
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