A costumed Times Square panhandler who twice tussled with cops while posing with tourists for tips plans to sue the city and the NYPD for $ 2 million, claiming false arrest.
José Escalona-Martinez was dressed as Spider-Man on June 6 when he landed in jail for “aggressive begging.”
But the 41-year-old Harlem resident says that if anyone was doing any hassling, it was the tourists.
He had just finished a shift in Times Square and was headed to a gym when a family of four pulled him aside, Manhattan Supreme Court papers say.
“I did not ask for a tip of any kind,” Escalona-Martinez recounts.
“After I posed for the photos, the couple then offered me payment, told me the amount they would pay, and, as I was making change for them, an NYPD officer approached and stated, ‘Give her the money back or I will arrest you.’ ”
After protesting that he never demanded payment, another cop said, “Take him in, he talks too much,” Escalona-Martinez claims.
He was acquitted after a bench trial in October.
His lawsuit does not mention that Escalona-Martinez was busted again in September for getting into a fight with two pedestrians.
Yahoo Local News – New York Post
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