Charges Dropped Against Man In Queens Knee-On-Neck Arrest

QUEENS, NY — A man who had a cop's knee placed on his neck as he was arrested in Queens had all charges against him dropped Thursday.

In January, Sircarlyle Arnold was hit with a handful of traffic violations and misdemeanor reckless endangerment charges after riding an all-terrain vehicle in the street.

The District Attorney's decision to dropping the charges was "the bare minimum that justice requires,” his lawyer said Thursday.

At the time of his arrest, Arnold was pinned to the ground at Sutphin Boulevard in South Jamaica by three police officers, one of whom kneeled on his neck for at least 15 seconds as bystanders repeatedly begged for them to stop, according to a video posted to Twitter.

"Everyone in the video immediately recognizes the George Floyd scenario,” his lawyer Olayemi Olurin of the Legal Aid Society — who herself described the scenario as “eerily similar” to the chokehold that led to Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police in May — told Patch.

Floyd’s death, which set off nationwide protests against police brutality, also galvanized New York City local government to pass legislation criminalizing chokeholds or any police use of restricting air or blood flow.

After Arnold’s arrest, Olurin and the Legal Aid Society called on the NYPD to fire the police officers involved — on the basis of their alleged use of excessive force — and the Queens District Attorney’s Office said it was “aware of the allegations against NYPD officers in the case” and was “reviewing all evidence in this case, including the officers’ body worn camera videos.”

Earlier this month, DA Melinda Katz announced that the investigation, which she said included consultations with multiple experts and Arnold himself, found “no violations of Administrative Code 10-181” — the chokehold ban in question.

“There is insufficient evidence of an unlawful method of restraint being used during the handcuffing procedure of Mr. Arnold,” read Katz’s statement.

Olurin disputes the DA’s findings, calling them “totally false” and adding that “no experts” or the DA herself spoke to Arnold.

The lawyer told Patch that her client's one interview, with the then-Assistant District Attorney on the case, was “more akin to a cross examination” than an investigation into his experience of what happened during the arrest and made him “fear that these people [the DA’s office] are going to prosecute him, and retaliate against him, rather than hold the officer who harmed him accountable.”

To Olurin, the DA’s findings, which comes amid the criminal case against former police officer Derek Chauvin who has been charged with murder in the killing of Floyd, are indicative of how police brutality cases are handled all around the country.

“The [chokehold] law was passed in response to the killing of George Floyd, and here you are refusing to hold the police accountable in the middle of this trial,” she said of Arnold’s case.

The Queens DA’s Office did not immediately respond when contacted Thursday, and neither did the NYPD, which last told Patch in January that the incidents at Arnold’s arrest were “under internal review.”