A Queens cop accused of having nude pictures and videos of a female prisoner sent from her cell phone to his is facing a federal lawsuit and administrative charges, the Daily News has learned.
NYPD Officer Sean Christian was hit earlier this month with departmental raps for misconduct, but he remains on full duty at the 104th Precinct in Ridgewood.
Pamela Held, a 29-year-old sales rep who filed suit against Christian, told The News her ordeal began when cops pulled her over near the Queens-Brooklyn border in February 2013. She was cited for having an expired vehicle inspection, but the cops found prescription drugs in her car.
The small stash — four Oxycodone pills, two amphetamines and one Suboxone, which is prescribed for maintenance treatment of opioid dependence — led her to be arrested because she did not have the necessary prescriptions.
She was taken to the 104th Precinct station house. Before she was booked on a misdemeanor drug possession charge, cops questioned her, asking where she was before she was stopped, Held told The News. She replied that she had been visiting a friend and had text messages to prove it, according to her account. She gave a female cop her iPhone and its security code, she said, but became worried when that officer left the room.
After she was released and given back her phone, she said, Christian began flirting with her. She said she rebuffed his advances, but soon realized that 20 risqué pictures of her and five videos — which were saved on her phone and meant solely for her boyfriend’s viewing — had been forwarded to another number. She hired a lawyer, Richard Soleymanzadeh, and his investigator later determined that number to be Christian’s.
Christian, who has 11 years on the force, could not be reached for comment. He previously told The News he never met Held — and didn’t work at the 104th Precinct, a clear whopper.
After Held’s lawyer’s investigator connected Christian to the number the pictures were sent to, Held filed a complaint with police. She later spoke to Christian by phone for 50 minutes, with Internal Affairs Bureau investigators listening in, police sources said. Christian even called her back when the call dropped, sources said.
The drug charges against Held, of Deer Park, L.I., were eventually dismissed. Her suit names Christian and three other officers who had access to her phone when she surrendered it.
Christian will face a departmental trial on the misconduct charges, if he doesn’t work out a plea deal. He could lose a number of vacation days, or face a more stiff reprimand, such as being placed on probation for potential dismissal.
Asked for his thoughts on the NYPD bringing departmental charges against Christian, Soleymanzadeh said he hopes the city “will ultimately do the right thing here.”
“Hopefully, other New Yorkers will not be victimized by a few bad apples,” he added.
rparascandola@nydailynews.com
