After being slapped with assault charges by Democratic District Attorney ( DA ) Alvin Bragg, a New York City police officer who got into a scuffle while escorting a suspect out of a Manhattan Apple Store has been cleared.
Officer Salvatore Provenzano, a 17- year veteran of the New York Police Department ( NYPD), was charged with second- level assault in 2023 — two years after a body camera captured the October 2021 connection between him and Kamal Cheikhaoui, a gentleman who had constantly refused to leave the Upper West Side business, CBS News reported.
Cheikhaoui, whom the New York Post , described as a “repeat offender”, was apparently acting “unruly” in the Apple Store before protection asked him to depart, prompting Provenzano and other officers to move in to replace him.
As Provenzano leads him toward the exit and takes him by the arm, Cheikhaoui begins to yell loudly and try to squeeze past safety as another responding officer records body camera film. The official strikes the suspect in the face when he suddenly loses control of his possessions:
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According to the West Side Rags, Cheikhaoui fell to the floor and was subject to a lock struggle until Provenzano’s companion pepper sprayed him.  ,
A grand jury was convened by DA Bragg’s company two years later, which indicted the officer despite the officer’s injuries and Provenzano’s lack of violent work practices.
Provenzano declined to enter a plea deal for a lesser second-degree abuse charge even though he was facing an additional year in jail for the assault charge. Otherwise, he took his prospects in a test.  ,
” My client really believed he was about to be struck — and there was one punch”, the officer’s lawyer, Stu London, told the jury in July.
Additionally, Cheikhaoui was alleged to have originally violated store security and been barred from at least one other Apple Store.
” All this officer did was attempt to escort]the man ] out of the location”, London told reporters outside the courthouse.
The man soon tosses his arm again and tenses his body as he puts his hand on his elbow to ask him to depart, and this officer reasonably believed he would be struck, and he hits him once, and he falls to the ground without any injuries at all.
On Thursday, police union representatives pleasedly announced that the charges had been dropped.
More than 50, 000 active and retired NYPD officers are represented by the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York ( PBA ), which claims it was “grateful to get justice” but that Manhattan prosecutors should never have brought the case in the first place.
This DA must stop pursuing criminals and stop pursuing New York City police officers. It needs to end right away, PBA President Patrick Hendry said during a press conference.
NOT in acquittal for defending himself against a repeat offender who caused chaos in an Upper West Side Apple store. Although we’re grateful for justice, Manhattan’s prosecutor should have avoided the case altogether. pic. twitter.com/zxxmBNB33B
— NYC PBA ( @NYCPBA ) April 25, 2024
In a statement that the New York Post , obtained, Hendry said Provenzano was” simply doing his job” in removing the repeat offender from the store.
” We’re grateful that the court recognized that reality and acquitted him, but unfortunately, a lot of damage has been done”, Hendry said. ” This borough’s police officers are wondering if their careers will be derailed by baseless charges, and a good, hardworking cop has been sidelined for almost a year.”
” Manhattan prosecutors need to stop wasting time and resources on police by attacking them with nonsense and start working with us to address real public safety issues.”
London also applauded the verdict, but it was left wondering “why the Manhattan DA even brought this case in the first place?”
My client is pleased that the judge accepted this as an assault case and that the officer was simply defending himself against what he perceived as an aggressive action by the person he was dealing with, London told the Post on Thursday.
” It was a very minor case that, unfortunately, the Manhattan DA’s office turned into much more than it ever was”, he added.
Justice Maxwell Wiley, a justice for the Manhattan Acting Supreme Court, told the court that Bragg’s office was correct to bring the case forward despite the ruling.
We collaborate closely with the NYPD every day, and I have a lot of respect for the officers in uniform, Bragg said in a statement. ” I thank our prosecutors for their hard work and Judge Wiley for taking this matter into his own hands and with all due respect.”
