Soul Snatchers :: Part Two :: The Bronx Terrorist — Detective David Terrell
Today we begin naming names.
Detective David Terrell.
Detective Daniel Brady.
Assistant District Attorney David Slott.
This is Part Two in a five part series uncovering the systemic corruption and brutality from the 42nd Precinct of the NYPD and the multiple levels of government that have funded, backed, and supported them every step of the way. This series is sequential and each part functions like a pyramid as I build a criminal case against the perpetrators of state-sponsored violence in one Bronx, New York community from the ground up. I strongly advise you to read Part One before starting here. There I spotlight the fifteen courageous cops who have risked their careers and indeed their lives to expose an illegal system of arrest quotas that they say is the primary vehicle and justification for unjust policing in New York City. In meticulous detail, they have spelled out how their own supervisors and partners, in order to meet arrest quotas, are fully willing to make arrests regardless of guilt or innocence and will concoct evidence and force false confessions to get them. We’re not talking about a few dozen false arrests or even a few hundred or a few thousand. In the dark of the night, in the shadows of Trump’s inauguration, New York City just agreed to dismiss 900,000 bogus cases and to pay the victims an astounding $75,000,000. All of that, and much more, is broken down in Part One.
When systemic problems like mass incarceration are highlighted, the primary actors and perpetrators of the unjust system often go unnamed. The root of justice is accountability. The next four parts of this series are about naming the names of New York’s official soul snatchers who are destroying lives and ruining entire families. These are the traumatized survivors of police brutality and misconduct. We can’t change what we won’t name. These next four parts are about telling the very specific stories of abuse, pain, trauma, and injustice. We must name names. It is far too easy to dismiss a stat or an infographic about the problems ailing America. My aim is to show you the true human costs of injustice and help us begin holding the perpetrators of it accountable. People should be fired. Charges should be filed. An independent investigation should be launched immediately.
A Tale of Two Detectives
I’m not sure I would believe what I am about to tell you if I did not leave the safety of my corporate desk and go see these things for myself right smack in the middle of The Bronx. The stories there were so traumatic, had ruined so many lives, were so outrageous, and had so many witnesses and so much evidence, that if they were true, it would implicate not just a rogue cop, but his supervisors, and their supervisors, and the Police Commissioner, and the District Attorney, and the Comptroller, and the Mayor. What I learned, if true, could not have continued unabated for so long, without their full knowledge. It has cost too much money. Too many lawsuits and complaints have been filed. Letters direcly to the Mayor and the Police Commissioner have been delivered. They all knew this was going on.
Manuel Gomez, a former cop for the NYPD who served nearly twenty years in the military, provided security for ambassadors of the State Department in high risk zones around the world, and even worked as a private contractor for Blackwater, the notorious corporation for international mercenaries, may damn well be the most interesting man in the world. He’s brutally honest, battle worn, street smart, tough as nails, and can probably bend steel rods like a strongman on those late night ESPN specials. To dozens of families in the Bronx, he’s a real life superhero. Over and over again, they tell me that Manuel Gomez, who they often call Manny or Gomez, was a literal answer to their prayer. They each faced a dilemma that is painfully common in communities of color. Who exactly do you call when the police are brutalizing you, beating you, harassing you? Who do you call when the police kidnap your kids in the middle of the night without cause, pummel them, make them do things against their will, then release them without charges, only to start the process over again a few days later? You can’t very well call 911 or walk into your local police precinct to report what amounts to criminal human rights violations to the very people who are violating your loved ones.
In The Bronx, this struggle is not rare or strange, but constant and familiar. After experiencing what would be a full fledged life-altering scandal for a white family in the Upper East Side, or any privileged community for that matter, black and Latino families in the Bronx projects have been forced to experience unspeakable trauma at the hands of police, then somehow get up and go to work the next day — or risk losing their job or their home — all while their child or sibling languishes in a jail they don’t have access to for a crime nobody has sincerely identified. Fighting back, physically or even verbally, will likely get you arrested as well, as I will detail below. For all intents and purposes, this Bronx community looks, feels, and functions like Apartheid.
With nobody to call other than friends or loved ones to share the pain and grief, dozens of families in the Bronx who are experiencing a crisis of police brutality and corruption have decided to call Manuel Gomez. Now working as a private investigator, Gomez is not Superman. He’s more like The Punisher. Don’t get me wrong, he’s sharp on the outside and is rarely spotted in anything other than a custom suit and tie, but he has hard edges. He’s seen and done shit across the years that he isn’t proud to speak of out loud. He has a heavy chip on his shoulder and wakes up with an axe to grind — particularly against the NYPD — who he believes let him go without cause because of a class action lawsuit against the department he was a part of earlier in his career.
If New York has 1,000 private investigators, Manuel Gomez is the one guy the NYPD never wants a family to call when they’ve been wronged by someone in the department. He’s a fearless, relentless bulldog. He works around the clock. He’s not an amateur — he’s one of them, but better trained and traveled. He has no respect for authority and sees through lies and bullshit like wet tissue. He’ll go anywhere and confront anyone. When you tell him no, he’ll ask again and again and again. Eventually you will relent. If not, he’ll come back tomorrow, then the next day. Trust me, I’ve seen it. If you don’t relent, he’ll visit your job or your family at dinner or wait outside for hours on end until you leave the house.
I’ve long since believed that Manuel Gomez is working something out in his own soul. He’s trying to make amends or right some kind of wrong. He works like he’s trying to get right with God. Whatever his motivation, the man does good work. Scratch that, he does great work. I’ve never seen anything like it. He’s a real life comic book hero — conflicted origin story and all.
So, in November of 2015, when Jessica Perez, mother of five, including her teenage son, Pedro Hernandez, decided to use what was left of her life savings to hire Manuel Gomez to get to the bottom of why in the world Detective David Terrell of the NYPD’s 42nd Precinct was obsessed with her son, she made a decision that set off an unlikely chain reaction that I truly believe will soon have far-reaching consequences and repercussions within New York’s criminal justice system. This is the tale of two detectives — one working to bring families the justice they deserve and the other working for the NYPD.
Enger Javier.
Know that name. Google it on your own time. Pick any story you want to read and get informed (start with this brilliant Gawker piece). If you really want to know Manuel Gomez, it begins and ends with the story of Enger Javier — a young innocent man who was wrongly arrested for a murder he did not commit and spent several brutal years on Rikers Island before Gomez solved his case and helped set him free. In fact, it was when Pedro’s mother, Jessica, saw a news story about this on television two years ago that she knew Gomez was just the type of dude her family needed to get to the bottom of things. What I’m about to tell you is stranger than fiction. If I made it up and put it on television, it would seem far-fetched. It’s true. It’s all true. I’ve double and triple checked everything here. This story will tell you everything you need to know about Manuel Gomez and how the justice system works in The Bronx and get you ready for the hammer that’s about to drop later in this piece on Detective David Terrell and the network of police, prosecutors, and government officials that have protected him across the years.
On the night of August 19th, 2012 a young Dominican brother named Hansell Arias was brutally stabbed to death in The Bronx. A security camera, (footage seen below) captured the entire ordeal, including men chasing Hansell until they caught up, beat him, then stabbed him to death. The whole thing was terrible.
Also in the video is a young brother named Enger Javier. As the men who killed Hansell are seen chasing him, Enger appears to not even notice exactly what’s going on. He’s clearly drinking a Coke and talking to a young woman. That didn’t stop police in The Bronx from arresting Enger that night. He had absolutely nothing to do with the murder. About a dozen people actually saw who did it. For two straight days police interrogated Enger, denied him a chance to see an attorney, then arrested him and charged him with the murder of Hansell Arias.
Never mind the fact that police recovered someone else’s bloody clothes on the scene. Never mind that Enger was clearly seen on the video minding his own business. Never mind that witnesses saw and even told police who actually did it. Never mind that DNA under the fingernails of the victim belonged to someone else. The police were determined to pin it on Enger. Truth be damned. They brought people in to identify Enger in a lineup. Not a single person was clear.
Then, after being interrogated for three straight days without an attorney, a man finally said it was Enger Javier who killed Hansell Arias. Jansel Paula said he was denied sleep, food, and water for three straight days and told that he would go to prison for 20 years if he didn’t sign a statement saying that Enger Javier murdered Hansell Arias. When he finally broke and signed the statement, they released him and immediately placed Enger under arrest for Hansell’s murder. Enger was then sent straight to Rikers Island where he languished for nearly two straight years without ever seeing a judge — all while the men who actually murdered Hansell Arias went free and actually continued murdering other people.
With Enger behind bars for a murder he had absolutely nothing to do with, his family saved and saved and saved to bail him out. Their fear was that he would be killed in Rikers by men loyal to the guys who actually killed Hansell Arias. It appears such a hit was actually in the works.
Enter Manuel Gomez.
These are his words,
The first time I heard about Enger Javier was on July 17 2014. A bail bonds company contacted me in regards to putting on a GPS Anckle bracelet on Enger Javier because his family was attempting to bail him out from Rikers Island. That’s something I do.
I told the bond company that I had to investigate the case first before I took custody of Enger because he was being accused of murder. After three days of investigating the evidence, I felt that Enger Javier was most likely innocent. I then met with his mother and told her I believed he is innocent and that I would prove her son didn’t commit the murder. She cried and hugged me and thanked me. They couldn’t even pay me so I actually did the case for free because I believed so much in his innocence. I don’t work for guilty people and I’ve never lost a case like this.
I then went in front of Judge Barrett and Assistant District Attorney John Morabito in court and I was grilled for 30 minutes on why I was taking custody of Enger. I told the judge I bet my license he is innocent. This is why I would take him in my custody.
Every single day I investigated the Enger case I found a new piece of evidence that led to his innocence. I found the video. I found witness after witness who saw him and knew full well that he didn’t do it. I even found the men who did it and tracked them down. We even found through discovery that police and the District Attorney held on to the video that proved Enger was innocent for three full years before they admitted they had it. They never even tested the bloody clothes for DNA or tested the DNA under the fingernails of the victim. Because they knew if they did, it would all prove Enger was innocent.
What happened next is about the craziest damn thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life and I’ve heard some crazy shit.
On the strength of good old fashioned detective work, Gomez identifed the actual killers of Hansell Arias as Jose Rodriguez and Jesus Reyes — who literally turned out to be serial killers. For nearly three straight years, Gomez told the NYPD and the Bronx District Attorney’s Office that Rodriguez and Reyes murdered Hansell Arias. He showed them the video. He showed them a Facebook video he found of the men bragging about killing Arias. Finally, to prove it, Gomez literally tracked Jose Rodriguez to the church he had started attending. With a DNA collection device cupped in his hand, he went up and introduced himself to Rodriguez, shook his hand, and took a little blood prick in the process. Investigator Gomez then tested the DNA results to prove that it was Rodriguez who killed Hansell Arias.
It was. Enger Javier was then set free and the charges were dismissed. Not a single shred of evidence pointed to his guilt and the man who was coerced by the police to give the false identification had recanted long ago. This came after Enger spent over 700 days of his life at Rikers Island.
He sued the City of New York.
Here’s the full lawsuit. It’s as terrible as you could imagine. You should read it.
Of course, he won, and New York was forced to pay him $800,000. For his own safety, Enger has had to move out of state and has been permanently scarred by this experience. Not a single person from the NYPD or the Bronx DA’s Office was held accountable. Nobody at all. The city simply wrote a check and kept on moving. This is the New York way. In fact, New York City has now paid nearly $2 billion out to victims of police brutality and corruption — the most of any known city in the world. The payouts are literally a line item on New York’s annual budget. The city is fully willing to foot the bill without changing the root causes of the problems.
Then, just a few months ago, a full five years after Hansell Arias was murdered, the NYPD finally arrested the two men everybody told them were the actual murderers. But guess what? Gomez has proven that both of these men have murdered at least two other people since the NYPD and the Bronx DA’s Office let them off the hook five years ago when the police tried to frame Enger Javier for it. In a few months, you’ll be hearing more about this.
Manuel Gomez did all of that. He found the video. He found the witnesses. He found the DNA. He found the killers. He presented the evidence to the NYPD. He got the charges dropped on Enger Javier. And when Jessica Perez, mother of teenager Pedro Hernandez, heard this, she knew she had to contact him.
Enter NYPD Detective David Terrell.
But don’t let it be a black and a white one
’Cause they’ll slam ya down to the street top.
Black police showing out for the white cop.
— Ice Cube, NWA, “Fuck The Police”
In the Bronx, NYPD Detective David Terrell is called “the terror.” I’ve heard him called a “monster,” a “terrorist,” “evil,” and have had multiple families tell me he’s “the worst human being” they’ve encountered in their entire lives. Earlier today I was meeting with a family he has terrorized and the mother almost started crying at the very mention of his name. I believe them. I’ve written nearly a thousand stories on police brutality and David Terrell is one of the top three worst people I’ve ever profiled. The other two cops are in prison. Terrell should join them. It’s a crime that he is still on the force and has been allowed to terrorize thousands of families over the course of his career. His brutality is well-documented. As one of the most brutal men in the history of the department, his case file is enormous.
I’ve traveled uptown to The Bronx on the train from my home in Brooklyn to go meet many of the families that he has terrorized and to hear for myself what he has done to them.
“Shaun. Let me show you how much of a terrorist, a menace, a monster Detective David Terrell has been in this community,” said Manuel Gomez.
“Let’s play a game where we talk to complete strangers on the street. I’ll ask them if they’ve heard of Terrell, or had an encounter with him, and I bet you that at least 50% of the people we speak to have a story to tell,” Gomez continued.
I took him up on it and sure enough, he was right. Wherever we went — down random hallways in the projects, on the basketball courts, down the sidewalk, or in a courtyard, Gomez would ask people if they’ve ever heard of Terrell or had an encounter with him, and at least 50% of the people had a horrible, painful story to tell. Gomez would never lead them on either. Before he’d describe what Detective Terrell looked like, he’d ask people to describe him first, just to prove to me that they knew who they were talking about. As crass as it sounds, people in the community consistently described him first with just three words, “big, black, and bald” before immediately describing how he had wronged them or their loved one in some horrible way. The truth is, though, that long before Terrell began targeting Pedro and his family, he terrorized people all over New York.
What’s most troubling about this is that an enormous paper trail of his destruction exists going all the way back to when he entered the force. The city has paid out claim after claim on his behalf and currently has hundreds of millions of dollars of lawsuits pending against him. Yet he still remains on the force. Today, we detail the criminal transgressions of Detective David Terrell, of the 42nd Precinct, first and foremost, to bring him to justice. Secondly, he is also a symbol.
“I know of at least a dozen different David Terrell’s on this force,” said Sgt. Edwin Raymond, an NYPD officer in Brooklyn who is a member of the NYPD12 — the collection of award-winning officers suing the city and the department for forcing illegal arrest quotas on officers.
Over the course of my investigation into the 42nd Precinct, several people told me that Detective David Terrell had between 30–40 CCRB’s. The CCRB is the Civilian Complaint Review Board. On the street, it’s common for people to talk about how many CCRB’s an officer has accumulated. When I asked Sgt. Raymond what he thought about people saying Terrell had between 30–40 CCRB’s, he said, “That’s a staggering number. Five is a lot. 10 is wild. 30 is outrageous. But here’s the thing, when I was going through my training in the academy, they literally told us, “If you aren’t piling up CCRB’s, you’re not doing it right.”
I ran Sgt. Raymond’s words by half a dozen other officers and each of them told me they heard some version of the same thing. CCRB’s are worn as a badge of honor. Accumulating 30–40 of them makes Detective David Terrell a cult legend inside of the department and explains, officers told me, why he was made a detective and allowed to get away with so much.
What follows is a cross section of the people Detective David Terrell has brutalized across the years.
The False Arrest of Peter Thomas :: February 9th, 2005
Visiting New York from his home country of Jamaica, Peter Thomas was beaten by Officer David Terrell, handcuffed, then arrested for a whole host of crimes he never committed. With injuries to his head, neck, and back from Terrell, officers then demanded that Thomas sign a false confession. He refused. He was beaten again, then taken to jail, where he remained for 10 straight months, until all charges were dismissed. It turned his whole life upside down.
See the full lawsuit here:
The False Arrest of Tashia Carter :: June 13th, 2006
Simply eating at a restaurant in Brooklyn, Tashia Carter was asked by police to produce her identification. She did so and got ready to leave. They then asked again, but when she walked to get her identification, Officer Terrell swarmed her, grabbed her violently, handcuffed, and arrested her. She was then taken to Central Booking and remained there for 24 hours without explanation or cause before she was released. Forced to go to court repeatedly and explain that she was arrested to the supervisors at her job, all charges were later dismissed.
See the full lawsuit here:
The Brutal Assault of a 15 Year Old Girl :: February 3rd, 2009
This case was where I first saw just how much of a monster Terrell truly was. Here he punched a 15 year old girl who weighed just 120 pounds in the face multiple times. Mind you, he weighs 265 pounds. While falling down from the punches, she hit her head on a bench. Witnesses saw this and filed reports. She went to the hospital for her injuries.
See the full lawsuit here:
The above case is essential — because many families in The Bronx told me that their sons and daughters first started being harassed, threatened, beaten, and arrested by Terrell when he was an officer at a local junior high school.
Once Terrell begins working out of the 42nd Precinct in The Bronx, his brutality and corruption go to another level. Please recall from Part One of this series that multiple officers from the 42nd Precinct sued the city and the NYPD for having illegal arrest quotas. Whereas some officers loathed the quotas and protested, Terrell excelled under them.
Teenagers Angelo & Antonio Cotto Targeted, Harassed, Beaten, and Repeatedly Arrested after their Mother Turns Down Sexual Advances from Detective David Terrell :: January of 2010 — November of 2016
At least four different women have said that Detective David Terrell made overt sexual advances toward them and even offered to leave their kids alone if they’d have sex with him. More will be profiled in this series. One of those women is Elizabeth Rosado — mother of teenagers Angelo and Antonio Cotto. When she resisted Terrell’s advances, the unjust false arrests began almost immediately.
- On January 27th, 2014, Angelo Cotto, who was just 16 at the time, was falsely arrested by Detective David Terrell under docket number 2014–01514 without probable cause. On October 20th, 2014, these charges were dismissed.
- On March 5th, 2014, Angelo Cotto was arrested by Detective David Terrell and charged with assault, marijuana possession, larceny, and harassment. All of the charges were false. All charges were dismissed on January 21st, 2015.
- On July 3rd, 2014, Angelo Cotto was again arrested by Detective David Terrell and charged with disorderly conduct. On February 24th, 2015, all charges were dropped.
- On October 19th, 2015, Angelo Cotto was arrested again by Detective David Terrell. This time he was charged with assault, menacing, possession of a weapon, and harassment. On January 26th, 2016, all charges were again dropped.
- On December 10th, 2015, Angelo Cotto, now 18, was arrested again by Detective David Terrell. This time he was charged with criminal possession of a weapon and possession of marijuana. On July 25th, 2016, all of these charges were dropped.
Throughout this entire time, Detective David Terrell continued to sexually harass Angelo’s mother and make overt sexual advances toward her— reminding her that he would leave her son alone if she’d give in. She refused. The arrests continued.
Then, after harassing and falsely arresting her older son Angelo for years, Detective Terrell turned to her younger son, Antonio, who had never been arrested before.
- On October 6th, 2016 Detective David Terrell falsely arrested 16 year old Antonio Cotto and charged him with menacing, harassment, and criminal possession of a weapon. These charges were completely bogus. On January 12th, 2017, all charges against Antonio were dismissed.
See the full lawsuits here:
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The Brutal Assault and Arrest of a Young Mother in Front of Her Children :: March 15th, 2011
After seeing her handcuffed son, a juvenile, being punched in the face by police, Charmaine Dixon, who also had her young daughter with her, screamed out in horror. Not wanting to be seen by her, Officer David Terrell came after her, grabbed her in a bear hug, and slammed her full force onto the sidewalk, where his slam badly injured her back and head. Without cause, in front of her daughter, she was then arrested and repeatedly denied medical care. For 48 hours she was kept in jail for no cause other than “resisting arrest,” but she committed no real crime. Transferred from the precinct to Central Booking, she was forced to take mugshots and put on jail clothes, only to be released. Seven months later, after a series of court appearances, all charges were dismissed.
See the full lawsuit here:
THE BRUTALITY & CORRUPTION OF DAVID TERRELL (AND THOSE AROUND HIM) BEGINS GETTING EXPONENTIALLY WORSE
The Filmed Beating, Falsification of Evidence, and False Arrest of Jateik Reed :: January 26th, 2012
While handcuffed, Jateik was beaten with batons, sprayed with pepper spray, punched, and kicked mercilessly by a swarm of officers from the 42nd Precinct. Just a teenager, he literally broke no laws and did nothing wrong whatsoever. He didn’t even resist arrest. After police placed Jateik in a nearby police van, he testified that Officer David Terrell and other officers continued the brutal beating.
Here’s the initial beating:
In their official reports, based on evidence falsified by Officer Terrell, police stated that Jateik possessed both crack cocaine and marijuana at the time of his arrest. Multiple officers included this lie in their reports. In fact, the video, which was filmed by a friend, proved that he had neither. Police made it all up. They falsified their reports — which is a crime. When they got to the precinct, the beating continued and police attempted to talk Reid out of demanding he be taken to the hospital.
When Jateik’s mother, Schuan Reed, went to the 42nd Precinct to check on him, police then arrested her, her 16 year old son, and took custody of her 4 year old son as well. Yeah, really. In the process, Officer Terrell punched her 16 year old son, a minor, in the face then stepped on his head while he was on the ground. Witnesses exist for all of this.
Months later, all criminal charges were dismissed for the entire family. They were all lies.
Here’s a news video from the time:
Of course the Reed family sued the city and the NYPD.
See full lawsuit here:
Of course they won the civil suit, but not a single officer was terminated over the incident — setting a dangerous precedent for exactly what the NYPD would allow officers to get away with.
Promoted to detective, the illegal arrests, corruption, and extreme brutality from now Detective David Terrell, who was shockingly given a promotion by his supervisors, begin to completely spiral out of control. What I will detail next is not simply poor policing, it’s a criminal conspiracy to destroy the lives of dozens of families in The Bronx. In order for such a system to exist, scores of officers within the 42nd Precinct and teams of attorneys inside of the Bronx DA’s Office had to not only be fully aware, but had to participate to pull it off.
Jerome Roman is Falsely Arrested by Detective David Terrell 8 Different Times :: July 13th, 2012 — June 13th, 2015
It appears that in early 2012, but perhaps earlier, Detective David Terrell and his partner Detective Daniel Brady, began an illegal racket of false arrests and coerced confessions — often relying on false witnesses who were also beaten, threatened, and forced into lying about people they had never seen or heard of before.
The targeted harassment, beatings, and arrests of Jerome Roman began when he was a young teenager on July 13th, 2012 and continued unchecked for years on end. In addition to eight different false arrests, he was brought into the department, beaten, and harassed countless other times before simply being let out of the back door of the 42nd Precinct without actually being formally arrested.
— July 13th, 2012, Jerome Roman arrested by Detective Terrell and charged with resisting arrest. It was a lie. The charge was dismissed on July 24th, 2013.
— July 20th, 2012, Jerome Roman arrested by Detective David Terrell and charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and obstruction of government administration. The charges were all dismissed a year later on July 24th, 2013.
— April 5th, 2014, Jerome Roman is walking home with friends when he is again arrested by Detective David Terrell for resisting arrest. At the precinct, Roman is beaten brutally by Terrell and other officers. During this beating, Jerome witnesses Anthony Floyd, pictured below, get seriously injured by Detective David Terrell. The charge, of course, was later dismissed.
**Up until this point, Terrell kept his false arrests of Jerome Roman within the department, but that soon changed.
— July 20th, 2014, Jerome Roman is falsely arrested by Detective David Terrell, but this time he is charged with criminal trespass, which he did not commit in any shape, form, or fashion. During the arrest, Detective David Terrell attempted to get Roman to be a false witness in other cases that he knew nothing about. He refused. Terrell then proceeded with the arrest, sending the charges to the Bronx District Attorney’s Office — knowing full well that no evidence of any such crime existed. The DA confirmed the charges and proceeded with the prosecution, sending Roman before a judge. On August 21st, 2015, all charges stemming from this arrest were dismissed.
— July 21st, 2014, just one day after being falsely arrested and charged with criminal trespass, Detective David Terrell again falsely arrested Jerome Roman and this time charged him criminally with the criminal sale and possession of marijuana. It was a complete fabrication. On January 23rd, 2015, all charges from this arrest were dismissed.
— August 1st, 2014, Jerome Roman arrested again by Detective David Terrell under arrest #B14654210 and put in a holding cell without any explanation on the cause. Detective Terrell then simply lets Roman go without ever being given a single reason for the arrest.
— June 13, 2015, Jerome Roman arrested yet again by Detective David Terrell for the criminal possession of marijuana. This time, the arrest was forwarded again to the Bronx DA’s Office and processed. On August 10th, 2016, this false charge, like all of the other false charges, was dismissed.
Throughout all of this, Jerome Roman not only suffered physical violence and emotional abuse, but spent countless hours attending court to defend himself against false charges. Of course, he has filed suit against the department.
See the full lawsuit here:
At this point, Detective Terrell is clear that he can say or do anything he feels like doing within the 42nd Precinct — so it gets worse.
The False Arrest and Brutal Beating of Anthony Floyd by Detective David Terrell :: April 5th, 2014
That image above was taken of Anthony Floyd as he left the 42nd Precinct. He had been arrested by Detective David Terrell for no reason other than to interrogate him about crimes and guns and people he knew nothing of. When Floyd told him that he didn’t know anything, Terrell replied, “Shut up or I will break your face.” Detective Terrell then did just that and began pummeling Anthony Floyd’s face with his fists. Two other police officers in white shirts joined in. Detective David Terrell continued the beating until Anthony Floyd was barely conscious and unable to move. Seeing just how badly he injured Floyd, Terrell panicked and simply told him he was free to leave and let him go. Anthony Floyd left the 42nd Precinct with a fractured orbital bone, a broken nose, and trauma to his eyes, ears, teeth, lips, and nasal passages. This heinous assault was done in full view of staff and other arrestees.
See the full lawsuit here:
Salim Wilson & Julio Velasquez Falsely Arrested by Detectives David Terrell and Daniel Brady and Charged With a Murder They Did Not Commit — Spending Three Hard Years at Rikers :: February 11th, 2014 — December 5th, 2016
UPDATE: Since the original publication of this article, Julio Velasquez was brutally murdered in The Bronx. His lawsuit against the NYPD was still pending.
“I want it to stop. I don’t want anyone to go through what I went through. It was the worst experience.” — Salim Wilson
It’s hard to rank the destruction that Detectives David Terrell and his partner Daniel Brady have caused families, but it’d be hard to argue that anyone has paid a larger price for it than Salim Wilson and Julio Velasquez, who were wrongly arrested and charged with the murder of Darin Capehart and the shooting of Ramon Padilla. In fact, Salim and Julio had absolutely nothing to do with either shooting — nothing at all. They provided extensive evidence, including videos and witnesses of their whereabouts, but it didn’t matter. Not a single shred of physical evidence pointed toward these two men for this murder, but in typical Terrell and Brady fashion, evidence never mattered. They coerced a man into saying he thought it was them and that was enough. In concert with the Bronx District Attorney’s Office, Salim and Julio were charged with murder, and a whole host of other felonies, and spent three full years awaiting trial at Rikers Island.
Beyond the fact that both men had a brutal experience at Rikers, they lost their jobs, their homes, and have been permanently tainted by this. To this day if you Google their names, the primary stories coming up are of their arrests for murder — not their exonerations.
The fake witness eventually came forward to admit that he was beaten and coerced by Detectives Terrell and Brady to identify Salim and Julio even though he never saw them at the scene. The men weren’t even near the shooting when it happened.
After three hard years at Rikers, the murder case against them was dismissed and they were simply released without any support, explanation, or apology.
See their full lawsuits here:
The damage done to these two men is unthinkable. On multiple occasions, Salim Wilson was brutally beaten by inmates at Rikers — fighting for his life over and over again. For one eleven month stint he was forced into solitary confinement. His mental health deteriorated so poorly that he was forced onto a whole host of medications and treatments while at Rikers. Julio’s story is not much better. His mental health fell apart at Rikers and he was also placed on a whole host of medications and treatments for it. Both men have struggled mightily to adjust back to society after their release.
Wanna take a guess who got to the bottom of this case? Yep. Manuel Gomez. Both Salim and Julio called him from Rikers to beg him for help. Within a few weeks Gomez discovered a mountain of evidence that was blatantly ignored and that the only witness in the case was forced to falsely identify Salim and Julio. Here’s Gomez,
After investigating the case I very quickly realized both of them were innocent. Again I went to the family’s home, and I saw both were very poor, so I did the case for free because I knew they were innocent. It’s not always about the money -it’s about the right thing regardless of the loss or cost.
Again, for these two families, Gomez is a superhero.
The False Arrest & Denial of Medications of Ryan Coleman :: June 1st, 2016
On June 1st, 2016, Ryan Coleman was minding his own business when he saw an unmarked police car speeding down his street in the wrong lane. He pulled his cell phone out to film it and walked up to what appeared to be some type of domestic disturbance — still staying at least 20 feet away from it. The officers were in plain clothes. Coleman asked to see their badges because everything looked suspicious. Without warning, Detective David Terrell rushed Coleman, roughed him up, and arrested him. Coleman was then taken to Central Booking, strip searched, and charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing government administration. For 33 hours Coleman was denied his seizure medication. He then had a seizure.
Two months later, all charges were dismissed. Ryan Coleman broke no laws.
See the full lawsuit here:
NEXT: Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy teenager Pedro Hernandez
Detective David Terrell, Detective Daniel Brady, and Assistant District Attorney David Slott have now terrorized Pedro Hernandez and his family for years on end. Part Three of SOUL SNATCHERS will tell this full story. It has never been told.
It’s not just a mess, it’s criminal in nature and the evidence is overwhelming.
