Manhattan prosecutors dropped charges on Friday against one of several men who police arrested for allegedly assaulting two NYPD officers outside a migrant shelter in Times Square earlier this year.
Jhoan Boada was one of seven people arrested in connection with the viral attack on officers that became a flashpoint in local and national debates over crime and immigration. NYPD officials and conservatives blamed the attack on liberal immigration laws and bail reform.
Boada garnered even more media attention after he raised his middle fingers at news photographers once he was released from police custody following his arrest.
“After a thorough and diligent investigation, Jhoan Boada has been exonerated as a participant in this assault,” the Manhattan district attorney’s office said in a statement.
Prosecutors said their investigation revealed that a different man, Marcelino Estee, committed the assault. They said Estee has been charged for his participation in the incident.
The NYPD declined to comment for this story.
Police body camera footage previously released by the district attorney’s office shows the officers approaching the group of men outside a migrant shelter on 42nd Street and ordering them to move.
One officer then shoves one of the men against a wall, and that man struggles with police. A group of people is subsequently seen hitting and kicking the officers as they try to make the arrest.
The men pleaded not guilty to a range of charges, including assaulting the police officers, swapping clothes to avoid detection and kicking away an officer’s radio.
“From the beginning of the case, I mentioned that my client wasn’t involved,” said Boada’s attorney Javier Damien, adding that Boada wasn’t captured on surveillance video. “They rushed to make a judgment. … If you were there, you speak Spanish, you’re Venezuelan, they said, ‘You’re coming with us.’”
Boada doesn’t speak English, so he wasn’t able to communicate with the officers…
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