Man who slapped woman on F train won’t be charged, will sue New York City over his arrest: attorney

NY Daily News ^ | 11/12/2014 | SHAYNA JACOBS

[Kid Shelleen]

Charges were dropped against a 6-foot-6-inch bar bouncer seen on a viral video slapping a woman on the subway — and he now plans to sue New York City over the bad arrest, the man’s lawyer said Wednesday.

Jorge Pena was let go once prosecutors found he was acting in self-defense

---SNIP---

Jorge Pena was coming off a 12-hour shift when people harassed him over his 8-ball jacket,

[Vegasdelight]

He does have a good case. His arrest was unreasonable. Gov’t agents can’t simply arrest people then gather evidence to prove a case. That isn’t the way our system works.

Our system requires PROBABLE CAUSE for an arrest. Probable cause is a higher standard than reasonable suspicion of a crime. Here, you have a video that clearly shows the man was violently assaulted.

The woman hit this man in the back of his head with a pair of ice skates with sharp metal blades.

The video was enough for the prosecutor to immediately drop the charges - this should have been enough for the police to NOT make an arrest.

They could have gathered information - his name, address, etc and followed up with their investigation.

Again - in our Democracy - you have the U.S. Constitution that protects your liberty against unreasonable gov’t searches and seizures. 4th Amendment.

Here, the seizure was unreasonable b/c the video exonerates this man. If the police wanted more information to make a final determination - that is acceptable but you CANNOT arrest someone without probable cause.

The video was there to corroborate his defense - you can’t arrest a person to later establish probable cause. You arrest them b/c you claim you have it. Here, the video exonerates the man and the police should have known better.

Hence, his claim of negligence against NY.

[Alberta's Child]

I'm not even sure you're looking at this objectively. The probable cause for an arrest is a call to the police regarding a brawl in a subway car, and multiple conflicting accounts from the participants about what happened. That's why they arrested everyone. And even if the police have no inclination to arrest someone on the scene, a mere statement by the female quasi-humanoid mutant about an alleged assault by the victim in this case would be sufficient for the police to lock him up.

Secondly, it's important to note the timeline here. The incident happened at around 4:20 AM. The information posted here indicates that the guy was arrested around 5:00 AM. At the time of his arrest the police may not have even had the video evidence that everyone here is discussing, and which was likely the determining factor in the prosecutor's decision to drop the charges.