Queens Woman Strip-Searched After Beef With Cop Neighbor: Suit

NEW YORK — A Queens woman's complaints about her state trooper neighbor's air conditioner led her to be arrested and strip-searched twice in a single day, a new lawsuit says.

NYPD cops collared Wilhelmina Nicomedez on a bogus stalking charge and forced her to strip down to her underwear after she complained about threats from State Trooper Thaddeus Wroblewski, according to the complaint filed Friday in Brooklyn federal court.

The ordeal left Nicomedez physically and emotionally shaken, and now she's trying to find answers about her allegedly false arrest, her lawyer, Wylie M. Stecklow, said.

"She has suffered both physical harm during the arrest and emotional harm from the arrest," Stecklow said. "This incident has impacted my client’s ability to trust and rely upon the police in the city and state of New York."

The lawsuit seeks damages from Wroblewski, 14 NYPD cops and New York City for the alleged violations of Nicomedez's civil and constitutional rights.

The New York State Police did not respond to a request for comment Monday, but the city and the NYPD said they would review Nicomedez's claims.

"We’re not going to comment before all the facts are in," city Law Department spokesperson Nick Paolucci said.

The dispute started because Wroblewski's air conditioner was dripping liquid onto Nicomedez's unit from above, Stecklow said. Her lawyer declined to say which Queens neighborhood she lived in for fear of further harassment, he said.

She complained to her building management about the problem at least three times leading up to her arrest, he said.

Her complaints spurred Wroblewski to intimidate her on three occasions, saying, "Stop complaining about me, I have a gun," according to the complaint. Nicomedez reported the trooper to his employer — the New York State police — after the third threat, the lawsuit says.

"She knew he was a New York State trooper and that didn’t seem like an idle threat," Stecklow said.

Nicomedez found a note on her front door a few weeks later from a State Police lieutenant asking her to call him, according to the complaint. She tried to do so twice but never got ahold of him, the suit says.

Cops then stopped and handcuffed Nicomedez outside her building on Oct. 4 of last year and took her to the 112 Precinct, where a female cop made her strip to her bra and searched her in front of male officers, the complaint says. She was later brought to Queens central booking, where she was "forced to undergo a second search and frisk with only her bra on and her upper torso exposed" to male and female cops, according to the suit.

While she was in a cell at the precinct, a detective told Nicomedez that she was being charged with stalking and said he had emails and text messages as evidence, the complaint says. Multiple cops mentioned Wroblewski and the State Police lieutenant by name, and the detective told Nicomedez he had informed them of her arrest, according to Stecklow and the lawsuit.

"Unless Wroblewski was the complaining witness and had been giving information to the NYPD, these officers would know no connection between my client and State Trooper Wroblewski," Stecklow said.

The Queens District Attorney's Office declined to prosecute the case against Nicomedez at her arraignment that evening, Stecklow said. The DA's office has no public record available on Nicomedez, which can happen when cases are not pursued and the records are sealed, office spokesperson Ikimulisa Livingston said.

Stecklow did not specify how much money Nicomedez is seeking in the lawsuit, but he said it could be "a significant dollar amount."

"This case is about searching for answers as to why and how this happened," Stecklow said.