City settles with Brooklyn men arrested by NYPD cops who confused Jolly Rancher candies for crystal meth
EXCLUSIVE: With their $33,000
payday, plaintiffs Love Olatunjiojo, Omar Ferriera and Jimmy Santos no longer
have a sour taste in their mouths over the trippy busts last year in Coney
Island.
BY JOHN MARZULLI
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, September 4, 2014,
2:30 AM
The city has dispensed a sweet
settlement to three Brooklyn men who sued the NYPD after cops bizarrely mistook
Jolly Rancher candies for crystal meth, the Daily News has learned.
With their $33,000 payday,
plaintiffs Love Olatunjiojo, Omar Ferriera and Jimmy Santos no longer have a
sour taste in their mouths over the trippy busts last year in Coney Island.
The city admitted no wrongdoing
on the part of the cops, arguing they couldn’t be sure whether the red and blue
rocks were illicit drugs or candy, according to the plaintiffs’ lawyer Kenneth
Smith.
“To my knowledge there is no
evidence in the scientific literature that crystal meth looks like Jolly
Ranchers or rock candy, other than from the ‘Breaking Bad’ TV show,” Smith told
The News.
“Walter White may dictate what drugs look like
in TV land, but not the narcotics policy of the NYPD,” Smith added, referring
to the meth-dealing lead character of the acclaimed show.
Olatunjiojo, 26, and Ferriera
23, were stopped by the cops shortly after leaving the It’Sugar candy emporium
on Surf Ave. where they had purchased various sweet treats including Jolly
Ranchers, according to papers filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Police Officers Jermaine Taylor
and Jovanny Calderon handcuffed the men and claimed that an undercover
colleague had observed them selling drugs, the court papers state.
“Finding only candy, including the Jolly
Rancher candy mentioned, the officers repeatedly searched Ferreira and
Olatunjiojo and told them it was ‘only a matter of time before they found
something,’” the suit states.
Sano, 27, standing nearby with
his 3-year-old daughter, protested the arrests of his two friends. Officer
Diana Pichardo ordered Sano’s arrest and he was allegedly punched in the face
by an unidentified cop before all three men were transported to the 60th
Precinct station house.
Court documents filed in
connection with the drug possession charges against Olatunjiojo and Ferriera
asserted that the cops had performed a field test on the candy and it tested
positive for a controlled substance. Sano was charged with obstructing
government administration. They spent about 24 hours in custody before a judge
released them on their own recognizance.
A spokesman for the city Law
Department said the settlement was in the best interest of all parties.
The NYPD laboratory later
concluded the two red and four blue “crystalline rocks of solid material” were
not drugs and the case went up in smoke.
After the suit was filed, Smith
said he was informed by the city that there was in fact no drug field test
performed and that the cops insisted the district attorney’s officer was never
told otherwise.
Olatunjiojo and Ferriera will
pocket $4,000 each and $25,000 to Sano to settle their claims, according to
papers filed last month. Olatunjiojo and Ferriera will receive less because the
cops determined during the booking process that there were outstanding bench
warrants against them for failing to show up in court for quality of life
summonses.
Smith said the summonses were
not for drug-related violations.
A spokesman for the city Law
Department said the settlement was in the best interest of all parties.
