The cop accused of body-slamming former tennis star James Blake during a mistaken arrest has a checkered past that includes five civilian complaints in just seven months and two excessive-force lawsuits.
Officer James Frascatore, 38, joined the NYPD four years ago and was on track to become a detective despite his short but spotty record on the job, police sources said Thursday.
One lawsuit claims the grand-larceny cop was among several who “sadistically and maliciously” beat Warren Diggs outside his Queens home in January 2013.
Diggs, 39, told The Post that Frascatore was the first cop to punch him. He said he wasn’t surprised to hear of the Blake incident.
“This guy needed to go a long time ago . . . He likes putting his hands on people,” Diggs said.
“Hopefully, [Blake’s] in a better position to do something about it so that he won’t be able to get away with it anymore.”
Meanwhile, a photo emerged showing Blake, 35, once the No. 4 player in the world, is nearly a dead ringer for the man cops thought they were hunting at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Midtown as a credit-card scammer on Wednesday.
The Instagram photo of the suspect was discovered and relayed to police by workers at the scammed online company, GoButler, which delivered 16 shipments of merchandise worth $18,000, cops said.
“If you look at the photograph of the suspect, it looks like the twin brother of Mr. Blake,” Police Commissioner Bill Bratton told CNN.
Later Thursday, Bratton said he personally apologized to Blake. Frascatore was stripped of his badge and gun pending a probe.
“Mr. Blake indicated he would be willing to meet with the Internal Affairs Bureau as our investigation continues,” Bratton said.
Police brass are also looking into the “failure” by Frascatore and five other cops at the scene to notify their bosses about Blake’s erroneous arrest, Bratton said.
Mayor de Blasio offered an apology to Blake during an interview with NY1. “This shouldn’t have happened, and he shouldn’t have been treated this way,” de Blasio said.
Blake, who is biracial, told “Good Morning America” that he didn’t think his arrest was a case of racial profiling — but was “use of excessive force.”
“I probably even wouldn’t be so indignant about it, if it wasn’t so obvious,” Blake said. “He picked me up and body-slammed me. He put me on the ground, told me to turn over and shut my mouth and put the cuffs on.”
The real suspects cops arrested at the hotel — British citizens James Short, 27, and Jarmaine Grey, 26, who resembles Blake — were ordered held on $50,000 bond or cash and forced to surrender their passports at their arraignment late Thursday in Manhattan Criminal Court. They’ve been charged with grand larceny, ID theft and criminal possession of stolen property.
Last year, WNYC radio revealed the five complaints filed against Frascatore with the Civilian Complaint Review Board — noting that it was more complaints than get lodged against 90 percent of cops during their entire careers.
One complaint was made by Stefon Luckey, who has a $5 million suit against Frascatore and several other cops, claiming he was beaten and pepper-sprayed after getting racially profiled outside a Queens deli in May 2013.
The CCRB dismissed Luckey’s complaint, but Luckey, who is black, maintains Frascatore punched him twice in the stomach and called him a “f- -king n- - - -r,” said his lawyer, Philip Hines.
Frascatore couldn’t be reached, and his wife declined to comment.
Additional reporting by Melkorka Licea, Dana Sauchelli and David K. Li