Police to South Slope Groping Witness: We Don't Hold Vendettas

A witness to May's claims he was bullied by police in the 72nd Precinct, supposedly in retaliation for publicly criticizing the department's handling of the incident, the Brooklyn Paper reports.

Donald Harrington told the paper he was unfairly thrown in jail on charges of criminal mischief after he allegedly scratched a 9-inch mark on a neighbor's car.

“It was retaliation,” Harrington told the paper, referring to his vocal criticism of the 72nd Precinct after responding officers allegedly released the suspect after Harrington caught and held him.

Police in the 72nd Precinct said that Harrington's statements are bunk.

"The two incidents are completely unrelated," a community affairs officer with the 72nd Precinct told Patch. "We never use past incidents to treat people in a positive or negative way. We treat every job we go to on a case-by-case basis, whether we're familiar with with them or not."

The officer added that the only instances in which the department uses prior information is when they're dealing with a past known perp.

"We don’t have time to have vendettas against people," he said.

The two officers who responded to the groping out of the 72nd Precinct to Staten Island and the Bronx, and placed on modified duty.