3 West Village Cops Have Committed Misconduct, New Database Shows

WEST VILLAGE, NY — Three police officers who currently patrol the West Village 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 three officers and sergeants assigned to the West Village's 6th 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.

Despite the substantiated findings, one of the West Village officers managed to avoid any penalty, which is ultimately decided by the NYPD. Others had to forfeit vacation time or to through additional training.

In total, five complaints have been substantiated against the three West Village officers, some of whom faced multiple complaints for the same incident.

Here are those substantiated complaints, according to the Legal Aid database.

• Sandra Mamanicapos, Sergeant 6th Precinct: Abuse of authority, substantiated allegations of a non-justified frisk and a vehicle search, given additional training.
• Nercy Burgos, Officer 6th Precinct: Abuse of authority, substantiated allegations of a non-justified frisk and vehicle search, forfeited six vacation days.
• Dhanan Saminath, Sergeant 6th Precinct: Abuse of authority, substantiated allegations of a non-justified stop, no penalty.

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.

Patch reporters Matt Troutman and Nick Garber contributed to this report.