Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Postal Worker Arrested in Brooklyn to Sue City Over Civil Rights Violation

By Rachel Holliday Smith | June 6, 2016 10:17am | Updated on June 6, 2016 1:45pm
 Postal worker Glen Grays, center, stand with his attorney Kenneth Ramseur, right, and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams at a press conference announcing his plans to sue the city over his arrest in Crown Heights in March.
Postal worker Glen Grays, center, stand with his attorney Kenneth Ramseur, right, and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams at a press conference announcing his plans to sue the city over his arrest in Crown Heights in March.
View Full Caption
DNAinfo/Rachel Holliday Smith

BROOKLYN — A postal worker arrested on the job this spring by officers who have since been reassigned will sue the city over the incident, his attorney said Monday.

Glen Grays, 27, was stopped by police while working his route in Crown Heights in March following a dispute with four undercover officers, who he claims sped by his mail truck, nearly hitting him as he stepped out of the vehicle.

Video of the aftermath of that interaction — and Grays’ arrest — went viral after it was released to the media following the March 17 arrest. Since then, the officers involved in the incident have been removed from their regular duties, the lieutenant who oversaw the arrest has been stripped of his badge and all charges against Grays stemming from the dispute have been dropped.

Now, the postal carrier is suing the city over the ordeal, his attorney Kenneth Ramseur said at a press conference on Monday with Grays and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams at the Cadman Plaza post office in downtown Brooklyn.

“The police involved in this situation did not have probable cause to arrest him in any form or fashion," Ramseur said, adding that officers acted "with indifference and arrogance."

The lawsuit will claim that Grays suffered a violation of his civil rights, the attorney said. In addition, violation claims in the suit will include false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and "negligent supervising and training" — a charge stemming from the fact that Grays was not properly strapped into an NYPD vehicle when its driver rear-ended a civilian car on the way to the precinct, Ramseur said.

“Nobody thought to strap him in and the reason, very simply, was that it was more convenient for them to embarrass him and humiliate him," he said.

A notice of claim, or first step for the suit, was filed on Monday, Ramseur said, and the official lawsuit will be filed in the next 30 to 60 days. However, he said, Grays will not be looking for specific damages, i.e. money.

“The point of the case is to seek legal redress because a wronging was done. We will rely upon what the people think is fair," he said.

Grays himself did not speak about the case on Monday. Instead, Ramseur spoke for him, describing how he still suffers from anxiety. Adams also described the trouble the 27-year-old has faced because of the incident, saying he is "still traumatized."

“Innocent men of color are traumatized when they are arrested. Bad guys go to jail all the time and they see it as the cost of doing business for their criminal behavior. But when you have done nothing wrong ... and you find yourself starting one day delivering mail and end the day sitting in jail, that is the wrong attitude," he said.

A spokesman for the city's Law Department said Grays' complaint will be reviewed once the city receives it.

As the lawsuit is pending, investigations by the Civilian Complaint Review Board and the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau stemming from the arrest are ongoing.