NYPD "completely unlawful" in arrest of NBAer, review finds
NEW YORK - New York City's Civilian Complaint Review Board says police had no right to arrest Atlanta Hawks' player Thabo Sefolosha outside a trendy nightclub in April.
The New York Times says the police watchdog agency also ruled Monday that officers didn't use excessive force when his leg was broken in a struggle.
Sefolosha's attorney, Alex Spiro, says they're pleased the board found his arrest to be "completely unlawful."
Sefolosha was acquitted in October of misdemeanor obstructing government administration, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Prosecutors had said he disobeyed police orders to clear the street after another NBA player was stabbed outside the club on April 8.
The department says it hasn't received the ruling. The board is an independent city agency with subpoena power. Its proceedings and reports are not public.
Sefolosha's injury caused him to miss the playoffs.
The guard-forward, who suffered a fractured right leg in the April 8 struggle with police, was accused of repeatedly disobeying the orders of officers telling him to leave the area around the club where another NBA player, Chris Copeland, had been stabbed.
He testified that he moved off the block at the behest of a vulgar and confrontational officer and was trying to give a beggar a $20 bill when he was grabbed by officers and taken to the ground.
"They arrested him," Sefolosha's attorney, Alex Spiro, said in his closing argument. "They broke his leg out of eyeshot or earshot of an unrelated crime scene."
Before the confrontation turned physical, the 6-foot-6 Sefolosha said he challenged the tone of a particularly aggressive officer who was ushering him, former teammate Pero Antic and others. He said he called the 5-foot-7 officer "a midget." Charges against Antic later were dropped.
But prosecutors presented a different theory, arguing Sefolosha, a Swiss citizen, acted entitled as he slowly departed the 1Oak nightclub. They said he eventually locked his arms in front of him to make it more difficult for arresting officers to put on handcuffs.
"The police don't get to tell the defendant how to play basketball," an assistant district attorney, Francesca Bartolomey, said in her summation. "The defendant doesn't get to say where the crime scene ends."
The case is the second one involving high-profile athletes accusing New York Police Department officers of wrongdoing this year. On Wednesday, the city agency charged with investigating police misconduct substantiated claims by former tennis pro James Blake that an officer used excessive force in taking him to the ground and wrongly arresting him last month after mistaking him for a fraud suspect.