The far-too-cozy relationship between the NYPD, city officials, and Jewish safety patrols in Brooklyn led to the beating of a gay, black man in Williamsburg, an explosive new lawsuit to be filed in federal court Monday alleges.
Taj Patterson of Fort Greene, was walking down Flushing Ave. in Williamsburg in December 2013 when he was set upon by a gang of men linked to the Shomrim, a volunteer Orthodox Jewish security patrol. He was left battered, and lost eyesight in one eye.
In aftermath, as the Daily News first reported, cops with the 90th Precinct prematurely closed the case despite having four witnesses to the assault — delaying the investigation for 48 crucial hours.
In the lawsuit, obtained by the Daily News, lawyers for Patterson claim that the city and the NYPD created an atmosphere where the security patrols not only got official recognition and money, but could act with impunity.
Shomrim members made calls to the 90th Precinct in an effort to influence the Patterson investigation, the lawsuit claims.
Had the cops acted more quickly, it’s possible that more suspects could have been identified, the lawsuit alleges. Instead, evidence quickly disappeared. Some witnesses recanted their testimony, the lawsuit claims.
The lawsuit draws a direct line from the Patterson assault through the ongoing corruption scandal involving police officials doing favors for Jewish businessmen in exchange for gifts to this relationship between the NYPD and the security patrols.
“The City’s policies have essentially created a private police force with special connections to the NYPD, funded and outfitted by the City, without any supervision of that force,” the lawsuit alleges.
The city is liable for Patterson’s injuries, the lawsuit argues, because it has created policies under which unconstitutional practices regularly take place, and that culminated in Patterson’s beating.
“The City’s deliberate indifference caused Plaintiff’s injuries,” the lawsuit alleges.
Along with the city, a cop and two sergeants from the 90th Precinct are named as defendants along with the Williamsburg Safety Patrol and a related organization known as the Shmira Volunteer Patrol Corp., and the five men arrested for the Patterson attack.
One of the sergeants named in the lawsuit, Ivan Furda, was docked 10 vacation days by the NYPD for prematurely closing the case.
Even though witnesses described the attackers as orthodox jews in appearance, including their hair, Furda is quoted in the lawsuit, claiming that he didn’t know Patterson’s assailants were Jewish.
Also named in the lawsuit is Yoeli Itzkowitz, who Patterson’s lawyers allege was part of the assault and is the brother of Shomrim coordinator Yanky Itzkowitz.
“The corrupt relationship between the NYPD and the Shomrim has never been a secret — and Taj’s beat-down by a gang of thugs in black coats and rent a cop jackets was the inevitable result of the 90th Precinct’s two-class system,” said Andrew Stoll, of Stoll Glickman Bellina, which is representing Patterson.
To illustrate the too close relationship, the complaint mentions four elected officials, including Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who made laudatory public statements about the Shomrim. None of them are named as defendants in the lawsuit.
The complaint goes on to point out that the city has given Shomrim patrols over $1 million through the years for bulletproof vests, police radios, and even two “command vehicles” worth about $300,000 each.
Shomrim cars, equipped with lists and sirens, are often “virtually indistinguishable” from NYPD vehicles.
“Shomrim members have readily been allowed access to areas of NYPD precincts not ordinarily open to the public,” the lawsuit alleges. “The safety patrol virtually replaces the official police in parts of Williamsburg.”
The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment.
“The complaint will be reviewed,” said Nick Paolucci, a spokesman for the city Law Department.
//assets.documentcloud.org/viewer/loader.js
DV.load(“https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2917791-Patterson-Complaint-Final.js”, {
width: 640,
height: 500,
sidebar: false,
pdf: false,
container: “#DV-viewer-2917791-Patterson-Complaint-Final”
});
In a statement, a spokesman for Borough President Adams said, “Civilian patrols play an important role in advancing the public safety of our communities, a role that be must performed lawfully through an active observance of the same rules and guidelines that govern every member of our city.
“Any individual that fails to observe those fundamental laws needs to be held accountable.”
A call to the Williamsburg Safety Patrol was not immediately returned.
Abraham Winkler, Aharon Hollender, Mayer Herskovic, Joseph Fried and Pinchas Braver were all arrested on assault charges in connection with the Patterson beating.
Charges were dropped against Hollender and Fried. Winkler and Braver pleaded guilty in May to unlawful imprisonment, a misdemeanor, and will be sentenced in August. Herskovic’s criminal case remains open.
“Aharon Hollender committed absolutely no misconduct in this case whatsoever,” said attorney Michael Farkas, who represented him while his criminal case was pending.
As the News has also reported, Braver, while he was under indictment, got a special tour of the Upper East Side’s 19th Precinct stationhouse in 2015 from a lieutenant assigned there.
The precinct commander at the time was Deputy Inspector James Grant, who was recently indicted for taking bribes from Jewish businessmen in exchange for using his position to give them favors.
“It is not a coincidence that the case involving Patterson was mysteriously closed out, and that Braver, was found in the inner sanctum of a precinct,” the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit argues that a direct line can be drawn from the cozy relationship net the safety patrols and the NYPD through the gifts for favors scandal to Patterson’s beating.
The lawsuit quotes U.S. Attorney Prett Bharara, who is running the gifts investigation, as saying members of the Orthodox Jewish community “got in effect a police force for themselves and their friends.”
