Under Stop-And-Frisk Reform, Cop Who Jailed Man For ‘Sarcasm’ And A Cigar Will Be Prosecuted

By Nicole Flatow
ThinkProgress
Dec. 19, 2013

Real estate broker Yahnick Martin was smoking a cigar on a Prospect Heights corner when police stopped to ask if he had marijuana. He said he didn’t, and he even blew out smoke to show the officers. But Officer Roman Goris proceeded to frisk him anyway, according to findings of the Civilian Complaint Review Board. Goris found nothing more than a lighter and Martin’s wallet, and he started to walk away. But Martin, a black man in a city where police made more stops of young black men than their total population, wasn’t having it. He told Goris he had no right to stop and frisk him, and asked for his badge number.

For that, and for making a joke about the hundred dollars he had in his pocket, he was issued two disorderly conduct summonses, arrested, and taken to the precinct. One of the officers told Martin, “You want to be a smart ass and make accusations, you go to jail.” Officer Gorris is now one of the first officers who will be prosecuted for a wrongful stop-and-frisk under reform that empowers the City’s Civilian Complaint Review Board to prosecute administrative trials and dispense discipline.

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