Use of force, strip searches and falsifying evidence under review

The Mt. Vernon Police Department, located in Westchester County NY, now has the unfortunate distinction to be named with police departments in Minneapolis, Phoenix and Louisville, as being under federal investigation for possible illegal police actions.

Two braches of Federal law enforcement announced the investigation into the Mt. Vernon PD: U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of NY, Damian Williams, and Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke.

On December 3, 2021, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams announced that the Department of Justice opened a civil pattern or practice investigation into the Mount Vernon Police Department, pursuant to the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994.  The DOJ investigation will assess whether there is reasonable cause to believe that MVPD engages in a pattern or practice of: (1) discriminatory policing, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Safe Streets Act, and the Fourteenth Amendment; (2) using excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment; (3) conducting unlawful strip and body cavity searches, in violation of the Fourth Amendment; or (4) mishandling evidence, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.  The investigation will be conducted by a team of career civil attorneys from the Special Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division and the Civil Division of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.  Individuals who wish to share information related to the investigation are encouraged to contact us via email at community.mvpd@usdoj.gov, by phone at 1-866-985-1378, or through the Civil Rights Division’s Civil Rights Portal, available at https://civilrights.justice.gov/.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Police officers have tough jobs, and so many do their work honorably, lawfully, and with distinction, respecting the rights of the citizens they have sworn to protect.  But when officers break the law, they violate their oath and undermine a community’s trust.  We ask anyone who has information relevant to the investigation into the Mount Vernon Police Department to contact the Department of Justice via email at community.mvpd@usdoj.gov or to call (866) 985-1378.”

 Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Kristen Clarke said: “An effective and accountable police department is a hallmark of a healthy and well-functioning democracy.  The Civil Rights Division is committed to ensuring that law enforcement agencies across our country use their authority in a manner that is constitutional, transparent, and free from discrimination. “We have received information about the repeated use of excessive force, often against individuals who are handcuffed. Similarly, reports indicate that officers routinely conducted searches without sufficient legal basis, including strip searches.”

As part of the investigation, SDNY and the Civil Rights Division will conduct a comprehensive review of MVPD’s systems of accountability, including complaint intake, investigation, review, disposition, and discipline.  SDNY and the Civil Rights Division will also reach out to community groups and members of the public to learn about their experiences with the MVPD.

Mt. Vernon Mayor Shawn Patterson-Howard was notified on Dec. 3 about the investigation. “We look forward to working with the Department of Justice and cooperating fully with its investigation, which is about possible pattern of behaviors and practices that predate the Patterson-Howard adminstration.”

“After assuming office in 2020, Mayor Patterson-Howard demonstrated her committment to transparency and transformation within the Mount Vernon Police Department. She enlisted the help of Police Commissioner Glen Scott to lead an internal investigation into past allegations of abuse and corruption.”

“Upon conclusion of the internal investigation, Police Commissioner Glen Scott implemented new policies and procedures to ensure that every police encounter in equitable and non-discriminatory. As part of our 21st Century policing model, Mayor Patterson-Howard tasked Deputy Police Commissioner Jennifer Lackard, the first civilian to be appointed to the role of Deputy Police Commissioner, to spearhead police reform within the department. Additionally, Mayor Patterson-Howard appointed civil rights attorney William Wagstaff to special counsel to investigate and prosecute police disciplinary hearings.

“The information obtained during the investigation was turned over to the Westchester District Attorney’s office and passed on to the Department of Justice. Both the Office of Mayor and the Police Department are cooperating fully with the DOJ’s investigation and believe that the charges institued will demonstrate that the culture of policing is changing for the better in Mount Vernon,” said The City of Mount Vernon in a statement on Dec. 3.

In April 2021, Westchester District Attorney Mimi Rocah called on the DOJ to investigate the MVPD. “The Westchester District Attorney’s Office is engaged in ongoing criminal investigations of certain individual MVPD police officers. In the course of those investigations, based largely on publicly available information, we have found disturbing allegations of patterns of inappropriate and potentially unlawful conduct by several former and current members of the MVPD. We have provided information that we gathered in this respect to DOJ.”

“While our criminal investigations of individual officers continue, we are requesting that DOJ scrutinize the MVPD’s operations, training and policies to determine whether the MVPD is systematically violating peoples’ civil rights and, if so, to take action to address these matters,” said Rocah, who in august 2021, accepted the guilty plea of former Mount Vernon Police Officer James Ready to falsifying records and reckless assault on Thursday after using excessive force to restrain a defendant in his custody, which was caught on surveillance, and lying about the incident in an effort to cover up the assault. According to his plea agreement, Ready received probation for one year. 

According to reporting in Esquire magazine and the Gothamist, a whistleblower from within the MVPD, Murashea Bovell, reported on “protecting drug dealers, planting evidence, brutalizing citizens.”

President Joe Biden has prioritzed the issue of police brutality and corruption after the May 2020 killing of George Floyd.