Brewster Police Officer Indicted On False Arrest Charges

A Brewster New York police offi­cer caught on video angri­ly grab­bing a man who want­ed to file a com­plaint against him has been indict­ed on felony charges that he fal­si­fied claims to jus­ti­fy arrest­ing the man.
Officer Fernando Quinones plead­ed not guilty Thursday at his arraign­ment in Putnam County Court.
On Oct. 28, 2021, Quinones pulled Alexander King over for alleged­ly using his cell­phone while driving.
King felt Quinones mis­treat­ed him and drove to police head­quar­ters to file a com­plaint. In the park­ing lot, Quinones con­front­ed him, ask­ing what King was doing there. King, who had begun record­ing with his cell­phone, told him he was going to see his supervisor.

The video appears to show Quinones grab­bing King by the neck and forc­ing him to the ground. It did not back up Quinones’ account that he includ­ed in the court doc­u­ments charg­ing King with attempt­ed assault, resist­ing arrest and dis­or­der­ly con­duct. The crim­i­nal charges against King were dis­missed last month. Charges relat­ed to an arrest of King fol­low­ing a traf­fic stop by Quinones ear­li­er that same month are also like­ly to be dis­missed as ear­ly as Monday. King, who tes­ti­fied before the grand jury, was elat­ed to learn of the indict­ment Friday.
It’s awe­some for me,” he said. “For a while I did­n’t think any­thing would come of it. We cer­tain­ly would­n’t be talk­ing now if I had­n’t tak­en that video.” Police Chief John Del Gardo and Mayor James Schoenig could not be reached for com­ment. Both defend­ed Quinones ear­li­er this year based on what they described as King’s aggres­sive reac­tion to being tick­et­ed. Quinones’ lawyers, Andrew Quinn and John D’Alessandro expressed dis­ap­point­ment with the indict­ment. Both have known Quinones for years, D’Alessandro as a col­league when both worked in the Yonkers Police Department and Quinn as the Yonkers PBA lawyer.

Quinn described him as a ded­i­cat­ed, well-respect­ed cop who spent more than a dozen years as an emer­gency ser­vices offi­cer, includ­ing time work­ing at Ground Zero fol­low­ing the ⁹⁄₁₁ ter­ror­ist attacks. ” .
A law­suit filed by King against Quinones and the vil­lage alleges exces­sive force by the offi­cer in addi­tion to wrong­ful arrest. The Quinones indict­ment does not accuse him of any­thing relat­ed to the phys­i­cal confrontation.
He is charged with three counts each of: first-degree fal­si­fy­ing busi­ness records, offer­ing a false instru­ment and mak­ing an appar­ent­ly false state­ment, all felonies. He is also charged with one count of offi­cial mis­con­duct, a mis­de­meanor. Quinones, 58, was released with­out bail and is due back in court Nov. 22. He faces up to four years in prison if con­vict­ed of any of the felonies.
He joined the Brewster Police Department as a part-time offi­cer in 2016, four years after wrap­ping up a 23-year career in Yonkers. He has been out on dis­abil­i­ty for months over an injury unre­lat­ed to the King case.
He is the sec­ond vil­lage cop arrest­ed in the past year. Officer Wayne Peiffer plead­ed guilty in April in Brooklyn fed­er­al court to accept­ing sex­u­al favors in exchange for pro­tect­ing sex traf­fick­ers who brought pros­ti­tutes to Brewster.