EAST HARLEM — An NYPD officer stuck his hand in a disabled man’s pants, fondled his genitals and stuck his finger in the man’s anus during an “illegal stop and search” at a local bodega, a federal lawsuit claims.
John Hidalgo said he was at the store on East 106th Street on Sept. 7 around 3 p.m. to pick up some candy for his daughter.
While there, the officer — identified only by the last name Febres in the suit — ran into the store and grabbed Hidalgo by the arm and forced him against the store’s shelves, the lawsuit claims.
“Are you a cop? Am I doing something wrong?” Hidalgo said to the officer
“It looks like you got a bulge there,” Febres said, according to the suit.
Hidalgo said he told the officer it was his phone and showed it to him.
But his complaint claims Febres then stuck his hand in the man’s pants and “started fondling, squeezing, jerking and pinching (Hidalgo’s) testicles through his underwear."
Hidalgo said he then felt “a finger on the shaft of his penis” and then “felt the officer's index finger wiggle around inside his buttocks cheeks, then his anus. Then he stuck a finger into his anus approximately an inch.”
Hidalgo called the officer a “f----t” after the incident. But the suit said “his reaction was perfectly appropriate under the circumstances” because “as a heterosexual with a limited IQ who had never before been anally penetrated, let alone by someone's bare, dirty hand and without lubricant, this seemed terribly wrong to him,” the suit said.
The complaint was filed Feb. 11 in Manhattan Federal Court.
Gregory Antollino, the attorney representing Hidalgo, said the incident scarred his client emotionally and mentally. He had to be taken to a local hospital, the suit said.
“It was like going to a foreign country and learning that the customs are not what you’re used to,” Antollino told DNAinfo New York over the phone.
The suit also points to a tweet from the NYPD's 23rd Precinct highlighting Febres’ penchant for finding marijuana “where the sun don't shine.”
Carrying your #marijuana stash where the sun don't shine won't keep Officer Febres from finding it. That's dedication. #itswhatwedo. pic.twitter.com/tepm8ZWhl4
— NYPD 23rd Precinct (@NYPD23Pct) October 7, 2016
“They bragged about abusing citizens and called it dedication,” Antollino said.
The suit also names the city and the NYPD because Antollino claims the officer was “acting under either official policy or the practice, custom and usage."
The suit claims officers are trained “to arrest based on quotas” and maintain a “blue wall of silence”
Hidalgo received a summons for disorderly conduct, which Antollino said was dismissed.
Febres could not be reached for comment.
“The complaint will be reviewed,” said a Law Department spokesman.
