Pubdate: Mon, 17 Jan 2000
Source: Home News Tribune (NJ)
Copyright: 2000 Home News Tribune
Contact:  35 Kennedy Blvd., East Brunswick, NJ 08816
Website: http://www.thnt.com/hnt/
Author: JAKE STUIVER, STAFF WRITER

NEW BRUNSWICK: EXCESSIVE FORCE BY COPS ALLEGED

A New Brunswick family has filed a complaint against the city's Police
Department for allegedly using excessive force when searching a 17-year-old
boy in a drug probe.

Shorne Francis, 17, of Quentin Avenue said he was visiting his grandmother
at 54 Roosevelt Ave. Saturday evening when, upon leaving, he had a run-in
with several plainclothes city cops who were investigating drug activity at
the apartment building.

Francis and several of his relatives said the building is drug-infested, and
they said that dealers often leave bags of marijuana in the hallways for
their clients to pick up.

Francis said when he left his grandmother's apartment on the seventh floor,
he found a few bags right in front of her door and picked them up to dispose
of them.

When he picked up the bags, he said he noticed a man standing near the
stairs down the hall and didn't realize it was an officer. He said he threw
the bags down the stairs and then walked down to exit the building, at which
time he was approached by a number of plainclothes cops coming from outside.

He turned around and started walking back up the stairs, but was grabbed
from behind by one of the cops and pushed down by the cop upstairs, he said.
The cops wrestled him to the ground and hit him on the forehead with a
flashlight, he said.

None of the officers showed him badges or told him why they were accosting
him until after the scuffle, when they told him they were searching him for
drugs, he said.

Police Director Michael Beltranena confirmed a complaint of excessive use of
force was received around 7 p.m. yesterday but because the case involved a
juvenile suspect, he could only say that a 17-year-old was charged with
possession of a controlled dangerous substance and resisting arrest around
8:30 p.m. Saturday.

"At this point, the complaint will be investigated by . . . our
internal-affairs officer," Beltranena said. "He will forward his findings to
me, and we will follow it up with the family."

Beltranena said he was hearing reports of the incident third-hand and didn't
know exactly what happened, but he said the suspect was injured while
resisting arrest, which was a concern to the department.

"It's always a concern," he said. "He was, in fact, injured while resisting
arrest."

The suspect was cleaned up and treated for his injury at Police Headquarters
but declined to go to the hospital, and he then was released to his father,
Beltranena said.

"It was part of a narcotics-tracking investigation by the New Brunswick
police Anti-Crime Unit," said Beltranena, when asked about the investigation
at the apartment complex. "I don't know what the scenario was -- I have not
reviewed the reports yet."

Francis had a Band-Aid on his forehead last night covering a wound he said
he suffered from being hit with the flashlight. His relatives said they took
him to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick, where he got
five stitches. A hospital spokeswoman confirmed that the youth was treated
in the emergency room and released.

Francis' mother, Monica, and her sister, Renisha Daniel, both said the teen
never had any drugs on him at all. Daniel said she witnessed the whole
incident and never saw her nephew pick up any bags.

Monica Francis said she thinks her son claimed to have picked up bags to
throw out either because the police told him to or because he was "baffled,
confused" as a result of his head wound.

Shorne Francis also said he was thrown against a police van several times
after being taken outside; Beltranena said he knew nothing about that.

The grandmother, Sonia Shaw, said she went out of her apartment when she
heard the struggle and saw one officer holding Francis from behind in the
stairwell while another pushed him down. She said she saw at least one cop
use a flashlight to hit Francis on the head.

Monica Francis said police told her they found drugs in her son's jacket,
but she claims he wasn't wearing a jacket.

In addition to filing the internal-affairs complaint, family members said
they plan to look into legal actions they may take.
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