City Settles With LIC Man Detained For Photographing Maskless Cops

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — The city will pay thousands of dollars to a Queens man who was cuffed by Department of Homeless Services police for photographing them without their masks in 2020, according to attorneys.

Anshuman Bhatia, of Long Island City, will receive $36,000 after suing the city in federal court in 2021 for false arrest, accusing officers Joseph Coye and Ian Bourne of violating the state mask mandate and Bhatia's constitutional right to film them.

The officers then lied in official documents to cover up alleged misconduct, but surveillance footage obtained by Patch later disproved their accounts. The Department of Social Services said the officers committed "an absolutely unacceptable abuse of authority and breach of trust."

Each officer, as well as their supervisor Lieutenant Robert Diaz, will also give Bhatia $500, and have not admitted any wrongdoing, Hell Gate first reported.

“Although finding closure is an imperfect process, I count the settlement in my case as a real victory,” Bhatia said in a statement to Patch. “I hope the settlement will deter other New York City police from retaliating against people who document and criticize them and that it will encourage others to exercise their rights like I did.”

Gideon Oliver, Bhatia's attorney, called the police’s right to record training “a joke.”

“As long as that is the nature and quality of what the City teaches police about the right to record, police will keep interfering with – and retaliating against – people who exercise those rights, like Mr. Bhatia did, which will inevitably lead to more lawsuits like his,” he said in a statement to Patch.

Bhatia was detained by police on July 12, 2020, at a hotel at 23-15 39th Ave. at a time when the COVID-19 restrictions in place required residents and officials to wear masks.