This cop’s alibi is melting fast.
An NYPD officer being sued by a group of five young men he pulled a gun on and had arrested after one of them hit him with a snowball contradicted himself on the witness stand Tuesday as the civil trial got underway in the Bronx.
The testimony of Sgt. Adonis Ramirez, 34, revealed several inconsistencies between his current story and the statements he gave police after the February 2010 incident, most notably his admission that it was just “one” snowball thrown at him, despite telling responding cops that, “He felt himself get struck on the back by multiple snow balls.”
Ramirez, who was off-duty at the time of the incident, also testified that he didn’t recall telling police the young men chased him after lobbing the snow — even though he told cops that he’d feared for his “immediate safety.”
At one point, Ramirez told the attorney for the five men, Neil Wollerstein, that his clients were charged with weapons possession.
“That was possession of snow after a major blizzard, right?” Wollerstein cracked.
Ramirez also changed his story about how long it took him to draw his gun after he was struck by the snow — estimating in court that he took between 15 and 30 seconds even though in an earlier deposition he said it took him over a minute.
Surveillance footage released months after the incident also contradicted the cop’s story about multiple snowballs being thrown and the men chasing him.
Before the start of the trial Bronx Judge Alison Tuitt rejected a defense attorney’s motion to keep out testimony about an Internal Affairs probe into the incident and any resulting discipline of Ramirez.
The city attorney representing Ramirez, Stephen Kim, said in his opening statement that the cop had a reasonable basis to arrest the five men and that the cop who took down Ramirez’s statements made mistakes and was disciplined for his sloppiness.
“This case is about an individual who decided to take a stand,” said Kim, adding that Ramirez was “fearing for his safety.”
In the 911 “officer needs assistance” call, Ramirez made to summon his fellow cops to protect him from the savage snowball attackers — and played for the Bronx jury Tuesday — he can be heard telling the men, “Do not move, do not move. You brought this upon yourself. You want to be a d–k?”
The trial continues Wednesday.