By Marlyn Montilla
29 Oct 2023, 3:47 PM EDT
The police officer arrested last week for selling fentanyl and heroin while on duty has long been under the eye of the New York Police Department (NYPD).
Grace Baez, 37, was sued in 2016 for use of excessive force and false arrest in an incident that took place on Jan. 6, 2014, on West 125th Street, according to court documents.
This civil rights case was settled in Manhattan federal court for $30,000, according to court records.
The Latina was accused of excessive force in 2019, but plaintiff did not comply, records say.
NYPD placed Báez on modified duty in 2020 after being accused of misconduct. New York authorities did not provide details on the matter.
The officer, who once boasted about how much she loved her job, resigned from the department last week after being arrested for allegedly trafficking large quantities of high-quality narcotics, federal officials said.
“She was already modified. They should have caught this. It’s not like she’s selling popcorn,” said one enraged Manhattan police officer. “We are talking about a drug trafficker.”
“They should have looked at it more closely. . . . The dangerous thing is that she was here selling fentanyl, which is killing people. It’s like, who was supervising her?,” she added.
In the 2014 incident that began the lawsuit, a group of officers, including Báez, allegedly cleared the El Puerto Seafood restaurant before 4:30 a.m. and fractured the foot of Shawn Young, 27, while stopping him outside the store on the sidewalk, the complaint says.
Prosecutors said Young and another subject were arguing at the restaurant, and Young was taken outside and arrested when he tried to return inside on different occasions, the New York Post reported.
He also refused to be handcuffed with his hands behind his back and to bend down to get into the police patrol car, prosecutors explained.
Officers claimed Young spit in Baez’s face and swore at her, which the man has denied.
“I feel that each of them [casos de fuerza excesiva/arresto falso] it should trigger some kind of internal review,” said David Zelman, Young’s attorney, who noted that police officers did not have body cameras in 2014.
The woman was jointly charged with Cesar Martinez, 42, of Yonkers, her boyfriend, with distributing narcotics and distribution of narcotics, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said.
The couple allegedly tried to sell the drugs to an undercover federal informant between Oct. 9 and Oct. 29, authorities said.
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