OFFICER SUES POLICE DEPT. OVER ARREST

A police officer who contends that he was arrested in a drug sweep only
because he is Hispanic filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the
Police Department yesterday, charging that it continues to pursue
disciplinary charges against him even though his criminal case was dismissed.

The suit filed by the officer, Aki Perez, in Federal District Court in
Manhattan is the latest case in which Hispanic and black officers have
charged that the department discriminates by treating them more harshly in
disciplinary proceedings than it treats white officers.

But police officials said it was appropriate to continue administrative
proceedings against Officer Perez. Lt. Sean Crowley, a department
spokesman, said that in addition to the drug arrest, Officer Perez, 25, was
suspended in October after the police said he had broken the window of a
girlfriend's apartment during a domestic dispute.

The department has denied that its disciplinary process is discriminatory.

Officer Perez, who has been on the force for four years, says in his suit
that he was off duty and walking from his house to his mother's in the East
New York section of Brooklyn on Feb. 23, 1999, when he was stopped by two
officers on Van Siclen Avenue. The officers searched him for drugs, found
nothing and let him go when he said he was a police officer, according to
the lawsuit. But, the suit says, a second set of officers approached him a
few minutes later, asserting that he fit the description of someone
reported to have bought drugs in the area. They arrested him on charges of
loitering and criminal possession of heroin, even though they did not find
any drugs.

"The only crime he was guilty of was that he was Latino and he lived in
East New York," said Jonathan Moore, his lawyer.

The arresting officers' version of the incident is different. Law
enforcement officials said Officer Perez had been identified as a heroin
buyer by an undercover officer.

They said the first pair of officers approached Officer Perez on the basis
of the undercover officer's description, but let him go without searching
him when he identified himself as a police officer.

The Brooklyn district attorney's office declined to pursue drug charges
against Officer Perez, and the loitering charge was dropped.

Officer Perez's suit seeks $5 million in damages. He has been placed on
desk duty while he awaits the outcome of the disciplinary charges.