On December 1, 2023, our attorneys filed a Notice of Claim with the NYC Comptroller’s Office asserting claims against the CCRB and one its attorneys for Malicious Prosecution, Defamation, and Abuse of Process. A Notice of Claim is the first step in a lawsuit naming a City agency and which is required under the NYS General Municipal Law. The lawsuit stems from an administrative prosecution started against one of our members by the CCRB and its APU (Administrative Prosecution Unit). The charges were for excessive force, but were absurd from the start and should never have been brought. Realizing they would lose at trial, the CCRB attorney maliciously, and without any factual basis, continually stated that the only reason the incident happened was because the complainant was Black and our Detective is White: disparaging our Detective and impugning his reputation. The Trial Commissioner and Police Commissioner saw through this and found our Detective “Not Guilty” of all charges.
If the claim is not settled in 30 days — and we don’t anticipate that they will — we will then file suit in NYS Supreme Court and allege these same causes of action. CCRB must understand that they will be held accountable in Court for filing baseless charges and defaming our members. To be sure, this is a novel legal approach which has not been tried by the other unions. But we believe we have the legal basis, and the obligation to push back on CCRB’s “win at all costs” mentality.
