Video evidence exonerates security officers charged with using excessive force
Health & Hospitals Corp. (Lincoln Medical & Mental Health Ctr.) v Charles and Ross, OATH Index Nos. 2802/10 & 2803/10
The NYC Health and Hospital Corporation filed disciplinary charges alleging that two Lincoln Medical Center hospital special officers, Morris Charles and Christopher Ross, used excessive force against a hospital visitor when they escorted him outside.
OATH Administrative Law Judge Kara J. Miller determined that the officers and the visitor began to struggle inside the vestibule between the inner and outer doorways of the facility and then on the sidewalk in front of the building.
However, Judge Miller ruled that the video evidence presented by the Corporation failed to support the charges filed against the two officers and, further, that Charles and Ross “credibly established that the visitor initiated the physical altercation by cursing loudly and trying to hit them with a cane.”
Finding that the two security officers had reasonably attempted to de-escalate the situation and when that failed, the force used was not excessive under the circumstances, Judge Miller recommended that the disciplinary charges be dismissed.
The decision is posted on the Internet at:
http://archive.citylaw.org/oath/10_Cases/10-2802.pdf
NYPPL