Two Black Lives Matter activists can go ahead with their lawsuit against the Manhattan DA’s office and the NYPD over the police department handling their arrest cases, a judge ruled Thursday.
Arminta Jeffryes and Christina Winsor are trying to prevent NYPD lawyers from prosecuting them in criminal court.
The women face minor civil disobedience charges stemming from rallies.
Lawyers for Jeffryes and Winsor say the NYPD is overstepping its bounds to bully activists into making admissions in court that will protect the agency from future wrongful arrest claims.
The NYPD’s legal bureau has the authority to handle the low-level offenses in lieu of the Manhattan District Attorney as part of a “memorandum of understanding” issued by prosecutors in February 2016.
A judge on Thursday ruled that Jeffryes and Winsor can move forward with the lawsuit they filed in November 2016 — but did not block the NYPD from taking a prosecutorial role.
The police department has previously said the initiative had the goal of minimizing lawsuit liability and defending against false arrest claims.
In her decision Thursday, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lucy Billings said that tactic wasn’t appropriate for the role of the prosecuting agency.
“…It is surely unfair if the prosecutors are concerned about protecting their employer and co-employees from civil liability, rather than being solely concerned about achieving justice for the people of the county who elected the District Attorney to accomplish that objective above all else,” Billings wrote in her 20-page ruling.
Gideon Orion Oliver and Martin Stolar, lawyers for Jeffryes and Winsor, consider the jurist’s finding a victory.
“This decision calls into serious question the continued existence of the program,” Stolar remarked.
Given the ruling, Oliver said, “the ideal outcome at this point is that the DA’s office will take this decision as a sign that they should reconsider the ‘Memorandum of Understanding.'”
The women are due in Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday.