Cops Kick Out Innocent Man's Tooth In Mistaken Arrest: $12M Suit

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — Brooklyn cops kicked out an innocent man's front tooth because they mistook him for a suspected robber he did not in any way resemble, according to a new $12 million lawsuit.

Quayshaun Smith filed a civil suit against New York City in Brooklyn Federal Court Friday about one year after he says about a dozen 61st Precinct cops attacked him in a Brooklyn driveway, court records show.

The violent encounter began on Aug. 3, 2018 as Smith sat in a car eating pizza with two friends when a police car rolled up next to them and NYPD officer James Titus and another cop pulled out their guns and ordered Smith and his friends out of their car, according to the suit.

Smith saw the guns pointed at him, and terrified for his life, he ran, according to the suit.

The two cops cornered Smith in a nearby driveway about a block away and called for about a dozen cops to provide backup, the suit says.

Smith obeyed their demand that he freeze with his hands in the air, but Titus tased him in the stomach, then the group threw him to the ground, jumped on top of him, and kicked him in the face until his tooth broke, according to the suit.

According to the suit, Smith — with the taser barbs still embedded in his skin and blood pouring out of his mouth — was dragged into a cop car, taken to the 61st Precinct, shackled and thrown in a cell.

Smith was eventually treated for the taser barbs at Coney Island Hospital, but he said doctors ignored his tooth, which continued to throb when he was thrown back in the pens, the suit claims.

After hours of waiting, cops shoved Smith into an interrogation room with a one-way mirror where he later learned he was subjected to an identification procedure without his consent, the lawsuit says.

That's when a witness told cops that Smith — described in the suit as a dark-skinned man with a full head of hair and tattoos on his chest, arms and hands — did not look like anything like the robber they sought, according to the suit.

The suspected robber was bald, light-skinned man and did not have any tattoos, the witness allegedly said.

Hours after the failed ID, Officer Titus apologized to Smith for the mistake, had him released, and escorted him out of the building, according to the lawsuit.

“[I will] get in trouble,” Titus told the bloodied Smith as he escorted him out of the Sheepshead Bay precinct.

Smith is now asking $1 million for each of his 12 causes of action against the officers, which include illegal imprisonment, multiple constitutional rights violations, and cruel and unusual punishment.

The city's Law Department is looking into the case before providing Patch with a comment. Smith's attorney immediately respond to Patch's request for an interview.