Cop Fined For Harassing Civilian Over Police Parking Complaints In BK

BROOKLYN, NY — A police officer will pay a $500 fine and forfeit vacation days after confessing to using confidential information to "harass" a Brooklyn resident who reported illegal NYPD vehicle parking, according to court records and city officials.

The city's Conflicts of Interest Board on Tuesday ordered NYPD officer John Madera to pay back $500 of the $25,000 the city paid to settle a lawsuit after the officer admittedly posed as a 311 operator to "discourage" Brooklyn local Justin Sherwood from complaining about the department. Including legal fees, the lawsuit cost the city over $150,000, court records show.

Madera's lawyer did not respond to Patch's request for comment.

The board's decision, which Sherwood's lawyer Gideon Orion Oliver said amounts to "less than a slap on the wrist," comes after other avenues of accountability had already come up short, Oliver contends.

Sherwood reported Madera's and other phony calls and texts to City Council Members, the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau and the Civilian Complaint Review Board — which found Madera had lied during its investigation, according to the lawsuit.

In addition to its costly settlement, Sherwood and his lawyers want records of these internal investigations to be made public.

"This is a disappointing, but unfortunately predictable, outcome," Oliver said. "The lack of meaningful consequences sends the message that all it will cost other NYPD members who do the same kinds of things is a few hundred dollars and a few days’ vacation."

The Call

On Sept. 10, 2021, concerned downtown Brooklyn resident Sherwood repeatedly called the city's 311 complaint line to report cars parked on the bike lane and sidewalk outside Schermerhorn Street, many of which were seemingly associated with the 84th Precinct, according to court records.

The complaints were closed without action — but shortly after, Sherwood received a call from an unknown number. The caller, later identified by the CCRB and board as Madera, told Sherwood he risked being "barred" from making additional complaints on account of abusing the system, the board found.

"I acknowledge that, by using the complainant's personal contact information to give him false information in an attempt to discourage him from filing 311 complaints about parking practices at my precinct, I used confidential information to advance a private interest," Madera conceded in a disposition from the Conflicts of Interest Board.

Sherwood faced a slew of text messages and calls from NYPD personnel on other occasions not addressed in Tuesday's judgment, one of which called Sherwood a "d---head," according to the suit. The saga was documented over the years in Streetsblog.

The CCRB in 2022 substantiated Sherwood's claims that three other NYPD officials, Detective Samantha Sturman, Officer Arthur Sturman and Officer Tiagom Ries, had inappropriately contacted him, according to the suit.

On another occasion in 2021, Sherwood received a text message from an unknown saying: "keep f---ing around," the lawyers contend.

It's not the first time cops and locals have clashed over parking in Brooklyn. Oliver told Patch he worries the consequences won't actually deter any similar activity, a reality that should be frightening to New York City residents.

"New Yorkers should be terrified that the City cares so little about keeping personal and private information safe and out of the hands of those who would harm them, and the integrity of its police force," Oliver said.