"Several officers have been indicted in recent months after videos contradicted their accounts of how they made arrests..." 

February 12, 2009

An Officer Is Accused of Beating a Suspect

By JOHN ELIGON

Last July, Police Officer David London arrested a man in the Upper West Side building where he lived with his mother, accusing him of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.  But the building's surveillance video told a different story, District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau said Wednesday. 

It showed Officer London pulling the man out of an elevator, Mr. Morgenthau said, and beating him 18 to 20 times with a baton.  The beating continued event after the man, Walter Harvin, fell to the ground, Mr. Morgenthau said.  And even after Mr. Harvin was in handcuffs, Officer London delivered another eight to 10 blows, some with his feet, Mr. Morgenthau said.

Officer London, 42, has been indicted on charges of assault and filing false records and plead not guilty on Wednesday in the State Supreme Court in Manhattan.  He was released without bail.  If convicted he faces up to seven years in prison.

Stephen C. Worth, his lawyer, said Officer London "maintains his innocence strenuously."

Mr. Worth said his client was a 16-year veteran of the force assigned to a housing unit and is married with three children. He also has an exemplary record as a police officer, Mr. Worth added.

Daniel J. Castleman, the chief assistant district attorney, said, "We will dispute that," but he declined to give details.

Mr. Worth said it was important to put the video of the beating in the context of what happened before and after it was captured.

"Often times the videotape is the beginning of the story, not the end," Mr. Worth said.

Several officers have been indicted in recent months after videos contradicted their accounts of how they made arrests. In December an officer was indicted on assault and other charges after a video showed him shoving a bicyclist in Times Square. Last month two under cover narcotics officers were charged with lying about a drug sting after a nightclub video showed they had had no contact with four men they arrested. Prosecutors dropped charges against the bicyclist and the four men after the videos came to light.

In Officer London's case, prosecutors said they could not release the video, which came from surveillance cameras, to the public because it was part of the evidence.  But they said it captured the episode in detail. 

Mr. Harvin made it to the elevator, where the assault began, Mr. Morgenthau said. Mr. Harvin was arrested on charges of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, but prosecutors dropped the charges last September after the surveillance video contradicted Officer London's account.

Mr.Harvin suffered bruises and welts on his arms, back and head, Mr. Morgenthau said. Afterward, Mr. Harvin became homeless and drifted about the country, andprosecutors could not find him, Mr. Morgenthau said. But a lawyer representing Mr. Harvin informed the district attorney's office Wednesday that he was back in New York.

"He's a fragile person," said the lawyer, Adam Orlow, who added that Mr. Harvin suffered post-traumatic stress disorder from his time in Iraq. "He became only worse after this incident."

He said he would file a civil rights lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan within the next two weeks.

Officer London was placed on modified duty shortly after the episode and was suspended without pay because of the indictment.