A former NYPD officer on trial for repeatedly punching a homeless woman in a Bronx jail cell in 2019 testified on Thursday that he “lost control” after the woman spit on him.
Luis Marte was fired last year after the police department found that he used excessive force in the incident. The Bronx district attorney’s office indicted him on assault and official misconduct charges with a maximum sentence of 16 months to four years on the top charge against him. Prosecutors also said he lied about what happened on police paperwork. Justice Ralph Fabrizio — not a jury — will decide the case.
In court Thursday, Marte told Fabrizio that he was monitoring the cells in the 44th Precinct in the Bronx when officers from the city’s Department of Homeless Services brought in a woman from a nearby shelter. When she arrived at the precinct, she was yelling so much that a man detained in one of the cells tried to climb out and hit her, Marte said.
Marte said the woman was escorted to another cell in the back, where she continued to scream. He said she called him a racial slur, a “bald f—” and a “fat f—,” but that he remained calm because he was used to being called names as a police officer.
“Just another day,” he said.
Then, Marte said, the woman tried to spit on him while he was closing the cell door. He said he told her sternly not to spit on him — that he was an NYPD officer and he would treat her differently than the officers from the shelter system.
But after he closed the gate, he said, the woman spit again, this time hitting him above his eyebrow. He said he felt belittled as her saliva trickled down his cheek.
“I feel like that’s the nastiest thing you can do to a human being,” Marte said on the stand.
Marte said he had never been spat on before, and it set him off.
Surveillance footage captured Marte unlocking the gate, walking into the cell and slapping the woman in the face. She kicked him. Then he punched her again and again. Prosecutors…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply