Staten Island barber says police roughed him up in blotched iPhone sting



Michael Pacheco, owner of EZ Does It Barber Shop, is accusing cops of pummeling him for no reason during an undercover attempt to sell him a stolen iPhone 5.
NY Daily News
"They threw me across the room and started beating my brother while he was handcuffed," said Cummings, who says he settled a police brutality suit against the city for approximately $200,000 last year. "I don't know what's going on with Staten Island cops. They're not following procedures anymore."
Cummings was referring to the Eric Garner incident in July where the Port Richmond man died of a chokehold in police custody.
The altercation began last Friday at approximately 2 p.m. when an informant entered the business under the guise of trying to sell an iPhone 5, the family said. The NYPD initiative is known as Operation Take Back, where officers try to sell stolen iPhones or iPads.
Nobody bought the phone, the owners said.
They said they told the seller to leave before the younger Pacheco went outside with the informant to look at the phone before bringing it inside to show everyone.
That's when the melee broke out.
Then a few cops came into the store without identifying themselves before one lieutenant starting screaming about his phone, according to the family.
Pacheco told him nobody stole anything, and during the heated argument the lieutenant showed his badge.
"We told him nobody did anything. We're already upset because nobody did anything wrong," the elder Pacheco said.
The cop called for backup and almost instantly a group of 15 to 25 cops were crowded inside the small store.
During the fight, they threw the younger Pacheco to the floor and beat him up, the family says.
"I was shocked by the whole thing to be honest with you," Pacheco Jr. said. "I was ducking and weaving while they're throwing uppercuts and punching me."
"I wish the cops were more professional," the father said. "If they walked in with their IDs, there would have been no misunderstanding."
Police arrested the three men and took them to the 121st Precinct stationhouse, where they spent more than four hours in a cell before they were released.
The men were charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and criminal possession of stolen property.
The father received a summons for disorderly conduct, he said.
The men said they appeared at Staten Island Criminal Court on Saturday, where they claim court officers told them they wouldn't be prosecuted.
A spokesman for the Staten Island district attorney's office said they declined to prosecute.
"The whole thing was so upsetting," Pacheco Jr. said. "We knew they were wrong."
Internal Affairs was at the barbershop Friday morning inquiring about the incident.
The family plans to sue the city, they said.

Police have yet to respond to a request for comment.