These 17 UES Cops Have Committed Misconduct, New Database Shows

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Seventeen police officers who patrol the Upper East Side have committed some form of misconduct in the past, according to a new trove of NYPD records.

The finding comes from the "Law Enforcement Lookup" database unveiled Monday by the Legal Aid Society, a legal advocacy group, who describe it as the most comprehensive collection of city police misconduct files ever released.

It shows that 17 officers and detectives assigned to the Upper East Side's 19th Precinct have had complaints against them substantiated by the Civilian Complaint Review Board — meaning the watchdog agency found enough evidence to suggest that the alleged act happened.

Spanning between 2007 and 2021, the substantiated complaints range from discourteous language to unlawful frisks and strip-searches to excessive force in the use of a chokehold or a nightstick, the records show.

Despite the substantiated findings, three of the Upper East Side officers managed to avoid any penalty, which is ultimately decided by the NYPD. Others had to forfeit vacation time or go through additional training.

In some cases, the database shows details about an individual instance of misconduct.

In August 2019, for example, Officer Lissette Guerrerodeoleo and few other officers went to a woman's Upper East Side apartment to serve a family court order allowing the woman's husband to retrieve their children's belongings from the home, according to a subsequent investigation.

While the document did not require the woman to let the officers into her apartment, Guerrerodeoleo incorrectly told her that she was "committing criminal contempt" when she refused to let police in, according to the investigation.

When things escalated, Guerrerodeoleo eventually placed the woman in handcuffs — later telling investigators that she had arrested the woman to protect her fellow officers, before changing her statement to say that she had handcuffed the woman for her own safety, according to the investigation.

Guerrerodeoleo was found to have abused her authority and used excesive force in the arrest, records show.

Other 19th Precinct employees named in the records include Inspector Melissa Eger, the precinct's commanding officer, who was found to have unlawfully frisked someone in 2007.

In total, 33 complaints have been substantiated against the 17 Upper East Side officers, some of whom faced multiple complaints for the same incident.

Use the searchable table below to see each substantiated complaint against a 19th Precinct officer:

(The table displays best on web browsers; if you have trouble viewing it, click this link.)

Another 21 now-retired officers who were most recently assigned to the 19th Precinct also have substantiated complaints against them, according to the database.

Legal Aid describes its new database as a tool that New Yorkers can use to get information about officers they encounter on the street.

An everyday New Yorker who had what they believe was a "bad" traffic stop, for example, can use the database to delve into the officer’s past, said Jennvine Wong, a staff attorney with The Legal Aid Society’s Cop Accountability Project.

"It’s a one-stop lookup tool," she said.

Pat Lynch, the president of the powerful Police Benevolent Association union, blasted the database as nothing new, given most of it has already been publicly available.

"This isn’t really about 'transparency' – it’s about advancing the anti-police narrative and making it easier for cop-haters to target individual police officers," he said in a statement. "It’s yet another reason that New York City police officers are quitting at record rates."

The database includes, according to The Legal Aid Society:

• more than 18,000 lawsuits filed against more than 14,000 NYPD officers between 2013 and June 30, 2022;
• more than 190,000 Civilian Complaint Review Board records of allegations made against NYPD officers, including more than 1,000 full investigation closing reports obtained through FOIL requests and from partner organizations;
• about 9,000 NYPD internal misconduct records, including NYPD trial decisions and NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau records;
• nearly 15,000 District Attorney and judicial records, including Brady and Giglio disclosures from prosecutors, and DA “adverse credibility” records from four New York City counties;
• NYPD and DOC payroll and roster data for all currently employed members of service;
• more than 1,000 archived media articles concerning NYPD officer misconduct; and
• hundreds of DOC staff discipline records.

Matt Troutman contributed to this report.