NYPD Destroyed Evidence of Bogus Ticketing Operation — Almost 1 Million Fake Summonses Written for Quota

ONE guess at which ethnic groups ended up getting saturated with all the bogus tickets.

A text message obtained from a whistleblower shows a sergeant admonishing a beat
cop for failing to issue enough seatbelt summonses.

By Stephen Rex Brown

The NYPD and city lawyers are engaging in a “stunning pattern” of evidence destruction in a high-stakes class-action case alleging cops have issued 850,000 bogus summonses due to a quota system, new documents charge.

Attorneys for the city have failed to turn over even one email from the files of former Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly or former Chief of Department Joseph Esposito regarding summons activity over the last eight years, attorney Elinor Sutton writes in new filings in Manhattan Federal Court seeking sanctions against the city.

“It is simply not tenable that Commissioner Kelly and Chief Esposito did not — in the entire period of 2007 through the present — write or receive emails using terms” related to the word “summons,” Sutton writes.

RELATED STORY: New York City Cop Who Blew Whistle On Arrest Quota System Allowed to Sue City — Judge Rules

The city was unable to find any communications about summonses in the files of three other former members of NYPD brass, as well.

Does lying start at the top?

Ray Kelly: Until recently the Police Commissioner of New York
City. He repeatedly claimed there were no quotas for 'Stop and
Frisk.' He wasn't telling the truth. (Photo by US Department of
Homeland Security)

But that’s not the only example of missing evidence, Sutton says.

Police Lt. Stevelle Brown, who is alleged to have implemented a quota in Queens’ 105th Precinct, has destroyed text messages in which he denied a cop time off for failing to meet goals for traffic summonses, Sutton charges.

She also points to an exchange from an officer identified only as Sgt. Carty, who sternly admonished a cop for failing to issue enough seatbelt summonses.

“We missed seat belt number by 30 last week unacceptable. if need be u guys will go with me 2 traffic stat 2 explain why u missed,” the text reads.

Lastly, Sutton has introduced emails from Capt. Andrew Benjamin, who laments the lack of arrests among his top overtime earners in the Bronx Task Force division.

“This has to stop it is ridiculous to have 50 + hours with only one arrest,” Benjamin wrote.

RELATED STORY: Hero Cop Blew the Lid Off of the NYPD's Racially Discriminatory "Stop-and-Frisk" Practices  and he Backed Up his Claims with Audio Recordings Documenting "Stop-and-Frisk" Quotas 

Sutton said lawyers obtained the three exchanges through whistleblowers or by other means. The city has been unable to obtain its own copies of the messages. That’s proof, Sutton writes, that the communications have been improperly destroyed.

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