Teen sues New Rochelle, 7 cops, claims police lied in
robbery-try case against him
NEW ROCHELLE — Seven months
after being cleared in an attempted robbery case, a New Rochelle teenager is
alleging in a federal lawsuit that city police officers presented false
information to a grand jury in the case in order to bring criminal charges
against him.
Devonte Burns is suing the
city, officers Juan Torres, Kenneth Hudson, Robert Ferguson and four unnamed
officers, seeking an unspecified amount of money.
The lawsuit claims Torres,
Hudson and Ferguson “falsely and wrongfully alleged” in a criminal complaint and
“falsely and wrongfully testified” before a grand jury that the victim in the
July 2010 robbery and two other witnesses positively identified Burns as the
would-be robber.
Burns was charged with
attempted second-degree robbery, attempted fourth-degree grand larceny and
second-degree assault, but the charges were dismissed at the request of
prosecutors, who found issues with the witnesses’ identification of Burns.
Attorney Kathleen Gill, who
represents the city, declined comment, saying she hasn’t seen the lawsuit,
which was filed Friday. Officers Torres, Hudson and Ferguson could not be
reached for comment.
The case centers around
Burns’ arrest in an attempted robbery that happened at 9:36 p.m. July 20, 2010,
near Lincoln Avenue and Memorial Highway. A passenger was boarding a bus when a
man tried stealing his wallet from his back pocket. As the victim turned, the
man punched and kicked him, before running away and joining other men, as
passengers on the bus yelled, the lawsuit says.
Shortly after the attempted
robbery, a detective saw a group of men in the area that included Burns, the
lawsuit says. The men dispersed. Officers stopped Burns a couple of blocks away
from the attempted robbery, near Sickles Avenue and Guion Place, and arrested
him.
According to the lawsuit,
the victim told police he couldn’t identify the attacker, but Torres “falsely
and fraudulently wrote out a statement” for him, claiming that he positively
identified Burns.
The suit also alleges that
Hudson wrote a statement for another witness that identified Burns as the
attacker even though police showed Burns to the witness and she can be heard on
a patrol car video saying, “That’s not him.”
Burns, who was 17 when he
was arrested, is alleging malicious prosecution, false arrest and assault. As a
result of the allegations against him, Burns was disqualified from playing
varsity football for two seasons, had to attend an extra year of high school,
couldn’t use his Xbox, had to attend court on 15 occasions and was humiliated,
the lawsuit says.