A West Harlem housing patrol cop pleaded not guilty and was released without bail this afternoon after being indicted for allegedly lying on paperwork last week in the search and arrest of a drug suspect.
Isaias Alicea, 28, is insisting through his lawyer that he did in fact see one individual sell drugs to another in the lobby of a Manhattanville Houses building on West 126th St. building last February; prosecutors contend that lobby video shows the two men actually had no contact with each other.
Because of Alicea’s conduct, the drug sale case was eventually dismissed, prosecutors said.
Alicea is charged with ten felony counts of offering a false instrument for filing and two counts of misdemeanor official misconduct.
“We rightfully trust our police officers to report their activities truthfully,” Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance said in a written statement. “Those who do not erode the public’s trust in law enforcement.”
“They’re claiming there was no drug sale; my client says there was,” said Alicea’s lawyer, Angelo MacDonald. “But the videos are not the best quality, they’re taken from a distance and there are different angles.”
“He’s a good New York kid,” he said of his client, who was assigned to PSA 6 and is due back in court March 20.