The NYPD cop under scrutiny for punching a man on the street Saturday in the East Village has been named in seven lawsuits settled by the city for $210,000 — including one case in which he was accused of mocking a lesbian arguing with her girlfriend, court records show.
Officer Francisco Garcia was sued in 2016 by Natae Adams for an encounter in which Garcia and his partner Officer Arturo Arjona, while on a meal break inside a fast food restaurant in Harlem, saw Adams and her girlfriend in what Adams said was a heated discussion.
Garcia told Adams not to talk to her girlfriend “that way,” the suit said, at which point Adams retorted that it wasn’t Garcia’s business.
“Well, if you want to dress like a man I’m going to treat you like a man.” Garcia allegedly replied.
Adams got a notebook and pen and asked for Garcia’s shield number. Garcia allegedly shoved her and walked out, saying, “Take a picture of it, f—–g dyke.”
Adams followed him outside and tried to mover closer to him to see his shield number. When she got within a foot or two of Garcia, he allegedly slammed her into a gate, hurting her back and torso, then threw her to the ground and cuffed her.
She was charged with misdemeanor resisting arrest and harassment, a violation.
Court documents indicated that Arjona was the arresting officer and that he swore in the complaint that she elbowed Garcia, which she denied.
She was arraigned, released without bail, then had approximately 20 court appearances before the case was dismissed in May 2016. She then sued for $2 million and settled for $8,500.
Adams, 30, lives in Hollis. On Monday, she declined comment.
The other settlements include one for $120,000 and two for $27,500, including one filed by Mutawakilu Tanko, a home health care aide who was charged with trespassing Aug. 9, 2014 in what his lawyer Jeffrey Rizzo called “one of the worse cases I’ve ever seen, as far as false arrest.”
Tanko, then 26, was exiting a building in the Manhattanville Houses, where he was working for one of his patients, when he was stopped in the lobby by Garcia and other officers. Rizzo said Tanko explained who he was, showed his ID and his home health care license and explained why he was in the building.
Cops checked out his story, Rizzo said, but apparently went to the wrong apartment, 3G, instead of 3J, possibly because they misunderstood Tanko, an immigrant from Africa with a thick accent.
The case was dismissed when Tanko showed up in court with proof his patient was in the building. Tanko then sued.
“They tried to play it off as a misunderstanding,” Rizzo said, “but they should have realized he wasn’t in the building to buy drugs. The guy was clearly coming from work and they didn’t want to hear it.”
Garcia was captured on a cell phone video that went viral when he got involved in a social distancing arrest of two people, then broke away to confront a witness moving toward police.
Garcia pulled his Taser on Donni Wright, then repeatedly punched Wright before arresting him. The NYPD said Wright got into a fighting stance.
Garcia is now on modified desk duty, stripped of his gun and shield, sources said.
