An NYPD officer accused of assaulting his girlfriend’s aunt, then suggesting he wouldn’t help the family in an immigration matter if she cooperated with authorities, has been fired from the force, the Daily News has learned.
Officer Harry Espinal was dismissed by NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch on Jan. 23, three months after his departmental trial at One Police Plaza, with a summary of the case against him recently posted on the NYPD’s website.
The off-duty clash that ended his career with the NYPD began when Espinal showed up to pick up his girlfriend at a birthday party at her aunt’s home in Queens and got into an argument because his girlfriend had not answered his calls, the summary says.
The aunt, who told police Espinal is prone to jealousy and often tracks his girlfriend’s phone, said tensions escalated when he made a rude comment. He then hit the aunt in her face, chest, arm and legs — and knocked the phone from her hand when she tried to call 911.
The aunt, who was bruised, contacted police shortly after Espinal left and he was arrested and charged with assault, with an order or protection issued.
Espinal was later accused of violating that order by texting his girlfriend’s mother and asking her to talk to her sister — the aunt — about dropping the criminal charges he was facing “in exchange for his continued sponsorship of her son’s residency application,” the summary said. The son is the girlfriend’s brother.
Espinal at his departmental trial testified that his girlfriend and her aunt appeared to be drunk, that he didn’t assault the aunt but just put his palm on her chest to move her back and that he unintentionally knocked the phone out of her hand. He did admit to texting his girlfriend’s mother.
Espinal, the summary said, conceded that while it “seemed like” he was implying in his texts that his continued help in the immigration matter was tied to whether the aunt would drop the charges he insisted “that wasn’t what [he] was trying to get across.”
Espinal, who joined the NYPD in July 2015 and was assigned to the 88th Precinct in Fort Greene at the time of the incident, could not be reached for comment.
His lawyer, Peter Brill, in an attempt to minimize the penalty against Espinal, argued that the incident did not constitute domestic violence because Espinal does not live with the aunt.
But NYPD Judge Vanessa Facio-Lince disagreed, found Espinal guilty of the charges against him, and recommended he be fired.
Brill noted that the aunt did not testify at the departmental trial and that the judge relied on her previous statements.
“It used to be that if you had an absent complainant, unless the case was 100% cut and dry, more weight would be given to the respondent officer than the person who chose not to show up because you can’t cross examine them.” Brill said. “Lately, they seem to be giving a lot of weight to the person who you can’t question.”
The criminal case against Espinal was eventually dismissed.