NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) - A new lawsuit says the New York Police Department beat a young man while he waited for his pick-up order at IHOP to be ready.
Valerie Dominguez, as the proposed representative of the estate of Michael Acevedo, filed suit Feb. 1 in New York County Supreme Court against New York City and its police department.
On May 30, 2020, Dominguez and Acevedo were walking from their home in SoHo to get food. They had their French bulldog with them.
Under COVID protocols, they placed an order on an app and waited outside the IHOP for their food. Dominguez said a line of uniformed NYPD officers approached with their badge numbers covered in black tape. The officers were shoving protestors out of the way and screaming at anyone they encountered, the suit says.
Dominguez says they told Acevedo to "disperse," and he responded that he was just waiting for food.
"Defendant John Doe 1 and other defendants immediately began pushing Mr. Acevedo, striking him with their batons, punching him and kicking him," the suit says.
They beat him with batons and slammed his head into a bus stop terminal, the suit says. He was covered in blood and his hands were zip-tied so tightly that his right hand did not feel the same the rest of his life, Dominguez says.
Dominguez says she was hit with a baton while trying to protect the dog and video record the assault on Acevedo.
Acevedo died last year and no administrator of his estate has been named. Dominguez filed suit as the proposed administrator to make sure the case was filed within the statute of limitations.