A Nassau County judge has reportedly dropped charges against a 20-year-old Westbury man who alleged that he was a victim of police brutality at the hands of the officers who arrested him.
Judge Alan Honorof granted prosecutors’ request Monday to drop eight charges—including counts of assaulting an officer, resisting arrest and drug possession—that the officers had filed against Kyle Howell, The Associated Press reported.
“They should be arrested,” Howell’s mother, Joan, told reporters during a May 9 news conference called by local lawmakers who urged for a speedy investigation into the allegations. “It is definitely an injustice.”
The allegations stem from an April 25 traffic stop that was caught on surveillance video in which the officers can be seen beating Howell, who police alleged was trying to swallow marijuana. Howell has said that he was trying to keep his paycheck from blowing away when the officers opened his car door.
“What you’re seeing in that video is not the whole story,” James Carver, the Nassau Police Benevolent Association president, said in a news conference last week in which defended the officers. “What’s not seen here in the video is what the struggle is going on inside that car with the police officers.”
Prosecutors have said that an investigation into the officers’ actions is continuing.
Howell’s attorney, Amy Marion, said earlier this month that she filed a notice of claim, the first step in filing a lawsuit against the police department. Howell has said he required surgery to heal broken bones in his face after the incident.
The charges were dropped on the same day that the county legislature approved a $675,000 contract with a consulting firm that will provide ethics training for officers and brass following a string of recent scandals in the department, which include three former top cops being convicted of covering up a burglary and an officer pleading guilty to misconduct for spending his shifts with his mistress.
