Cop In Teen Brawl Also Involved In Jazmine Headley Arrest: Lawyer

BROOKLYN, NY — A cop involved in a violent arrest of five teenagers at Jay Street/MetroTech station was also one of the officers who ripped a woman's baby from her arms at a social services office last year, one of the teen's attorneys announced Friday.

Lawyers with Brooklyn Defender Services released the names of three officers involved in the cop-versus-teenager brawl, which sparked outrage and lawsuits after a video of the cops punching and then pinning down the teenagers on the subway platform Saturday went viral.

One of the officers — whose name the attorneys got from arrest documents for their client — was also involved in another viral arrest last year, when Jazmine Headley's baby was forced from her arms at a Fort Greene social services office.

The lawyers said the fact that the officer, Shawndel Latham, is still on the force is particularly troubling. In Headley's arrest, Latham had pointed a taser at a crowd of onlookers in the waiting room and was one of the officers that physically yanked Headley's 1-year-old son from her grasp, the attorneys said.

“Less than a year later, Officer Latham is still on active duty, serving with impunity. With her involvement in this incident, she shows a continued disregard for the safety of the public, including children, and further illustrates the total lack of accountability within the NYPD for officer misconduct," BDS Executive Director Lisa Schreibersdorf said.

Brooklyn Defender Services had also represented Headley, who has since sued the city, during her arrest. Headley was arrested after staff at the Dekalb Job Center called the police because she had sat on the floor. She ended up spending three days on Rikers Island before the charges and a separation order barring her from her son were dropped.

The teen's attorneys also released the names of Tommy Martinovic and Abdullah Odeh, another two officers they said were involved in the Jay Street arrest.

Details about Martinovic, Odeh and Latham's specific involvement in the arrest were not immediately available, but the attorneys said they felt it was important their names were made public.

"...The names and histories of misconduct of all officers involved in these incidents should be made public," the attorneys said. "These officers who have brutally attacked these young people and endangered dozens more must be held accountable for their actions. They, along with the other officers involved, whose names we do not know at this time, should not be policing our streets."

The attorneys did not reveal which of the five teenagers who were arrested they are representing or whether they are planning to take legal action against the NYPD. Three 18-year-olds, a 16-year-old and a 15-year-old were arrested in the brawl.

At least one of the other teens, 15-year-old Benjamin Marshall, has already notified the city that he plans to sue. Marshall also requested that the city reveal the names of the officers involved in his arrest, one of whom punched him in the face.

The Jay Street brawl was one of two violent arrests at Brooklyn subway stations that went viral over the weekend.

In the second, officers threw a man to the ground in a subway car at Crown Height's Franklin Avenue station as about a dozen other officers surround him. Brooklyn Defender Services also represents that man, 19-year-old Adrian Napier, and released the name of Officer Kyle Williams, who was the arresting officer in Napier’s arrest.

When asked for confirmation of the officers’ names or comment on the Jay Street incident, the NYPD referred Patch to a statement Commissioner James O’Neill made at an press conference this week.

O’Neil said the incident is under investigation and that “the officer” is on non-enforcement duty. He did not specify which officer, but was likely referring to the officer who punched Marshall, who the New York Post has reported was transferred to a detective unit.

O’Neil added that because there is pending litigation he wouldn’t go “too deep” into the arrest, but called the subway an “inherently unsafe place” due to trains coming and going and the third rail.

“Any violence on a subway platform is especially dangerous,” he said. “People have a responsibility, a duty, to comply with the police. If there is a fight, and it happens with young kids, I understand that. But when police come, they need to stop.”