FOREST HILLS — An NYPD officer has been charged with brutally beating a pedestrian whom he almost struck moments earlier with his car as the man was crossing Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said Tuesday.
The officer, Jamel Dennis, 32, of Queens, was arraigned Monday night in Queens Criminal Court on a charge of second−degree assault, a felony punishable by up to seven years in prison. The district attorney’s office does not release defendants’ exact addresses if they are a city policeman, a spokeswoman said.
Dennis was driving on Queens Boulevard Nov. 17 when he almost struck a Manhattan resident, 41−year−old Geoffrey Hollinden, who was crossing near 109th Street, Brown said.
Moments after the man hit the back of the car with his hands as it passed him, Brown said Dennis stepped from his car and grabbed the victim around the waist, pulling him southbound across Queens Boulevard.
As they reached the eastbound service lane of Queens Boulevard, Dennis allegedly lifted Hollinden to shoulder height before slamming him to the pavement, knocking him unconscious, Brown said.
After the beating, Hollinden needed five staples to his head and had cranial bleeding, a herniated disc in the neck and substantial pain that caused him to be hospitalized for three days, Brown said.
Dennis is assigned to the NYPD’s Brooklyn North Narcotics District.
