Did cop make up charge of resisting arrest?

A Staten Island police officer has been charged with falsely accusing a black man with resisting arrest, then using racial slurs while bragging about it.

Michael Daragjati, 32, an eight-year veteran of the NYPD, faces a federal civil rights prosecution connected to a stop-and frisk in Stapleton neighborhood on April 15.

Prosecutors say Daragjati stopped a 31-year-old man on Targee Street and searched him, but found no contraband. When the citizen complained of the treatment and asked for  Daragjati’s badge number, however, the officer arrested him and charged him with resisting arrest.

Officer Daragjati wrote in a police report that the man had flailed his arms and kicked his legs.

In transcripts of a call intercepted by the government later on, Officer Daragjati allegedly told a female friend it had been worth going to court on the case: “I sat there for a couple of hours by the time I got it all done but, fried another n****r.”

The police department’s own internal affairs unit initiated the investigation, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly told The New York Times.

The Times says Officer Daragjati also faces charges on two unrelated matters. One allegedly occurred when the officer suspected a man of stealing his snowplow. Daragjati is charged with luring the man to a parking lot, where eight men beat him up, threatened him with a gun and demanded either the snowplow or $5,000.

In the other incident, Daragjati was charged with insurance fraud in his snowplow business. He allegedly had one of his drivers hit a truck that the officer owned, then told the driver’s insurer it had happened in a plowing accident.

About Barry Lank

Barry Lank is a former TV and radio writer, and, like most people, was editor of the Courier-Post opinion page in Cherry Hill, at some point. If you look up, you'll realize he's watching you read this. | View all posts by Barry Lank