MANHATTAN — An NYPD detective was charged Wednesday with fraudulently arresting two men and then trying to cover it up by lying to authorities, prosecutors said.
Said Salim, 42, stopped two men carrying a duffel bag near 144th Street and Bradhurst Avenue on July 13, 2009. He arrested them without probable cause and then found 2 kilos of cocaine while illegally searching their bag, prosecutors said.
The drug possession charges against the two men was dismissed more than a year later when video and other evidence showed that Salim did not have a reason to search them, according to the Manhattan District Attorney.
The detective lied twice under oath — first to a grand jury investigating drug charges against the two men and again on the witness stand at their trial, according to his indictment.
Salim told the grand jury that he stopped the men because he thought one of them was a confidential informant. He said that he asked the men to leave after realizing that neither of them was his informant, but became suspicious when they said that the duffel bag didn't belong to them. He claimed he only arrested the men after finding cocaine in the bag, according to the DA.
More than a year later, during a September 2010 hearing at the men’s cocaine possession trail, Salim lied to the court while under oath, prosecutors said. He denied patting down the two men before searching their bag, records show.
“I don’t recall none of us patting him down,” Salim said in court, according to the criminal complaint. “There was no reason to pat him down, from what I recall, because we looked at him as a 'Friendly.'"
Salim was charged Wednesday with two counts of perjury, official misconduct, making a false written statement and offering a false instrument for filing.
“Dishonesty from a member of the law enforcement community is detrimental, not only to the rights of defendants, but to the reputation of all law enforcement in the communities we serve,” District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said.
Salim's lawyer could not be reached for comment.
