Queens Teen Falsely Arrested, Chained To Bench For Hours: Lawsuit

RICHMOND HILL, QUEENS — A 13-year-old Queens boy was wrongfully arrested, then kept chained to a bench at the local police precinct for three hours, a new lawsuit claims.

The boy, identified only as B.M. in court records because he is underage, was leaving school the afternoon of Jan. 18 when his classmates started fighting and one of them stole a girl's headphones, according to the lawsuit, filed Nov. 5 in Brooklyn federal court.

Police officers stopped B.M. and asked him what happened. After he told the officers what he saw, they arrested him and charged him with assault and stealing the headphones, even though he said he had nothing to do with the fight or the robbery, according to the complaint.

The officers brought the boy to the 102nd police precinct in Richmond Hill, where they kept him chained to a bench with adult detainees for three hours, the suit claims.

"He was forced to remove his shoe laces and string to his hoodie. He was fingerprinted and a mug shot was taken of him," the complaint says.

Leo Glickman, the lawyer representing the boy, said state law requires the NYPD to take children directly to family court, not a police precinct, if they're arrested during normal business hours.

"The law is designed to save children from the trauma of a police precinct but it's rarely if ever complied with by police," he wrote in an emailed statement to Patch.

Prosecutors ultimately declined to pursue charges against the boy, the complaint says.

A spokesperson for the city Law Department declined to comment "before all the facts are in," he said in a statement. "The allegations will be investigated as we proceed with the litigation."