A veteran Yonkers cop was indicted on assault costs for allegedly slugging and kicking a suspect in custody, Westchester County prosecutors introduced.
Police Detective Sgt. Hector Cartagena, 55, allegedly kicked and punched the suspect 10 occasions when he caught as much as him after a high-speed chase in a stolen car on March 14, District Lawyer Mimi Rocah mentioned in a press launch on Monday.
“Cops are sworn to guard us and uphold the regulation,” Rocah mentioned in an announcement. “The Yonkers Police Division was proactive in figuring out one among their officers as performing outdoors their coaching insurance policies and promptly referred this matter to my workplace.
“The information discovered throughout the court docket of our investigation had been offered to a grand jury who returned an indictment charging the defendant with offenses associated to his alleged use of extreme pressure.”
Westchester prosecutors mentioned the suspect was struck so laborious he suffered a fractured orbital bone.
The alleged sufferer was additionally arrested and faces grand larceny, assault and reckless endangerment costs for main cops on the chase and crashing the car he was driving.
Cartagena, who was positioned on modified obligation, was indicted on costs of assault and tried assault.
In a launch Monday, the sergeant’s union mentioned it was standing by the veteran cop.
“We ask you all to do not forget that this embellished, long-serving officer is harmless till confirmed responsible,” Detective Capt. Michael Hanley, president of the Yonkers Police Captains, Lieutenants and Sergeants Affiliation, wrote in an announcement.
“The pursuit began with a suspect who stole a civilian car and proceeded to steer quite a few police items on a high-speed chase all through the town of Yonkers,” Hanley mentioned. “The perpetrator’s actions all through this pursuit endangered the lives of quite a few residents of the town of Yonkers.
“The detective sergeant was performing his official duties in trying to subdue a violent felon who was resisting makes an attempt to be taken into custody,” the assertion mentioned.
Cartagena was arraigned earlier than State Supreme Court docket Justice James McCarthy on Monday and is because of return to court docket on July 31, prosecutors mentioned.
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