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The plaintiff is a centerfold!
A Playboy Playmate and astrologist is hoping the NYPD will be seeing stars over the way cops manhandled her.
Stephanie Adams, 40, says cops drew their guns on her and shoved her face into the Ninth Avenue pavement after a deranged cabby falsely claimed she had threatened to shoot him.
Once known as the first openly lesbian Playboy Playmate, and now a married-to-a-man mom, Adams has the cops in court, where she’s suing them and the city for using excessive force in the 2006 run-in.
“We’re very pleased she has her case before the jury,” said her lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein. “It’s been a long time coming.”
The spirituality writer had been taking a cab back to her apartment on May 25, 2006, when the driver refused to take her closer to her building.
She said he started cursing at her, so she called 911, prompting cabby Eric Darko to do the same. He falsely told the 911 operator that she had threatened to shoot him, so cops were on high alert.
Adams says plainclothes officers went up to her with their guns drawn and told her not to move.
She says that despite her following their directives, one cop shoved her face down and pinned her.
Adams’ trial lawyer, Nina Neumunz, contended that was unnecessary and that officers should have been able to tell she was unarmed because she was wearing a tight midriff-baring top and tight jeans.
Sgt. John Rajan testified she didn’t react when he told her to lie face down, so he had to make her.
“It was a controlled drop to the ground,” he said, denying Adams’ contention that he “mashed” her face.
“We didn’t know if she had a firearm.”
But he admitted he didn’t see a need to frisk her after the drop because “she was wearing tight-fitting clothing, and there was no place to conceal a weapon.”
Adams’ doctor, David Adin, testified yesterday that the incident injured spinal discs, causing her severe back pain.
Adin added he thought she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, but admitted to city lawyer Don Nguyen that he specializes in back pain, not psychiatry.
Adams’ suit also named the cabbie, who’s defaulted in the case. Darko lost his hack license soon after the incident – thanks in part to his contention to TLC investigators that he thought Adams was a vampire who’d bared her fangs at him.
The city maintains the officers followed proper police procedure.
Adams, a claimed descendant of presidents John and John Quincy Adams, declined comment. When she first filed suit, she said, “These men are in fact powerless cowards hiding behind an honorable badge and I will not stop until justice has been served.”
The trial is scheduled to resume before Justice Geoffrey Wright on Wednesday.