Thursday a judge ruled that two Black Lives Matter activists can go ahead with their lawsuit against the Manhattan DA’s office and the NYPD over the police department handling their arrest cases.
Black Lives Matter activists, Arminta Jeffryes and Christina Winsor were facing minor civil disobedience charges stemming from their participation in rallies. The two protesters were trying to prevent NYPD lawyers from prosecuting them in criminal court. Lawyers for Jeffryes and Winsor say the NYPD is trying to bully activists into making admissions in court that will protect the department from future wrongful arrest claims.
As part of a “memorandum of understanding” issued by prosecutors in February 2016, the NYPD’s legal bureau has the authority to handle low-level offenses instead of the Manhattan District Attorney. A judge on Thursday ruled that Jeffryes and Winsor can move forward with the lawsuit they filed in November 2016, but did not block the NYPD from taking a prosecutorial role.
The police department said that their actions had the intentions of reducing lawsuit liability and defending false arrest claims. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lucy Billings said that strategy "wasn't appropriate" for the role of the prosecuting agency.
"...It is surely unfair if the prosecutors are concerned about protecting their employer and co-employees from civil liability, rather than being solely concerned about achieving justice for the people of the county who elected the District Attorney to accomplish that objective above all else," Billings wrote in her 20-page ruling.
