NYC Woman Who Lost Eye After Brutal Arrest Still Faces Charges

THE BRONX, NY — A lawyer for a Bronx woman who says an NYPD cop gouged her eye out last June is demanding prosecutors drop the charges she still faces months after the brutal arrest.

Johanna Pagan-Alomar lost her left eye after Officer Theresa Lustica punched her in the face with a handcuff key in one of her hands, according to lawsuit she brought against the NYPD in January.

Prosecutors have dragged out their criminal case against Pagan-Alomar in the nearly 10 months since the arrest, says her Legal Aid Society lawyer, Nicolas Schumann-Ortega. He asked Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark in a Monday letter to dismiss the charges against Pagan-Alomar and charge the cop who allegedly beat her.

"It is shameful that the Bronx District Attorney continues to drag this case on, and that Officer Lustica continues to walk the beat endangering the people of this community she supposedly serves," Schumann-Ortega said in a statement.

Pagan-Alomar is charged with assault, harassment and obstructing governmental adminstration, the DA's office said. The NYPD says she "accosted" the cop during a drug possession arrest, and that an internal probe cleared Lustica of wrondgoing.

But a spokeswoman for Clark's office said the office will examine the allegation against the officer and respond to Schumann-Ortega's letter.

"We will look into the allegation of excessive force, and welcome the cooperation of the defendant in this matter," the spokeswoman, Patrice O'Shaughnessy, said in an email Monday.

Pagan-Alomar was walking to meet her boyfriend outside a bodega at the corner of Jerome and Burnside avenues on the morning of June 7, 2018, according to her lawsuit. As she approached she saw the boyfriend being handcuffed and asked Lustica in Spanish why he was being arrested, the complaint says.

Lustica picked up an empty plastic bag from the ground, told Pagan-Alomar that it was why the man was being arrested and waved it in front of her face, the suit says.

After Pagan-Alomar said "Look at this one, the way she is disrespecting me" in Spanish, Lustica shoved the boyfriend toward her partner, Officer Konti Markvukaj, and threw Pagan-Alomar to the ground, according to the complaint.

Lustica pinned down Pagan-Alomar’s arms with her legs and started punching her with both hands, one of which held the handcuff key, the suit says.

An NYPD spokeswoman, Sgt. Jessica McRorie, said Pagan-Alomar “physically accosted” the cop “from behind, without provocation, while the officer was effecting an arrest for heroin possession.”

"The Internal Affairs Bureau conducted an investigation and determined that the officer’s actions were appropriate under the circumstances and neither excessive nor unnecessary," McRorie said in an email.

But video from the scene appears to show Pagan-Alomar just tapping the officer before she turns around and starts grappling with the woman. The Legal Aid Society published the footage online.

Pagan-Alomar’s left eye was hanging out of its socket when she got to the 46th Precinct, but she wasn’t sent to St. Barnabas Hospital until a cop there noticed she was bleeding, according to her lawsuit.

Pagan-Alomar spent five days in the hospital and had unsuccessful emergency procedures to save her eye, Legal Aid says. She ultimately had surgery to remove the eye in late August 2018, her complaint says.

A medical expert who reviewed Pagan-Alomar's records noted that time is precious when it comes to such traumatic injuries, and "earlier intervention could have possibl(y) had a different outcome," according to Schumann-Ortega's letter.

The NYPD says Pagan-Alomar asked in writing that her complaint about the cop's use of force be withdrawn at the time of her interview with the Internal Affairs Bureau. The allegation involving the handcuff key also went unconfirmed, according to the NYPD.

But Pagan-Alomar maintains that she was "too groggy" to remember signing the form withdrawing her complaint, according to the New York Daily News, which first reported on her case.

"I’m very nervous. I’m scared to see her," Pagan-Alomar told the newspaper of Lustica. "She should not be in the streets working."