Assault: When Your Face Is In Way Of Off-Duty Cop's Fist

Emzo

Imze (Emzo) Yildiz, a Turkish immigrant who became a citizen just three weeks ago, is charged with felony assault after a Staten Island road rage incident with an off-duty cop left him with two black eyes and nine stitches above his eyebrow. But the cop, Officer Anthony Egan, was reportedly whisked away from the scene Tuesday morning with no charges or injuries, even though Emzo and at least one witness say Egan was the only one who threw punches. Welcome to America, Emzo!

"When does someone who does not throw a punch, and gets punched by somebody else, get arrested?" Emzo's lawyer asked at his arraignment. "When the other person is an off-duty police officer." The altercation apparently started after Emzo and Egan almost collided while jockeying for position during a traffic jam. Witness Cliff Browning says, "[Egan] kept blowing his horn and yelling. He was provoking, yelling, screaming, so Emzo stopped." According to Browning, Emzo got out of his car, "and he raised his hands and shrugged his shoulders, like, what’s your problem?"

A police spokesman claims Egan merely tapped on his horn, and that Emzo got out of his car and charged at Egan, who had identified himself as a police officer and threw a punch in self-defense. But Browning tells SI Live, "He never touched that cop. Egan started touching Emzo’s arm, and Emzo is yelling, ‘Don’t touch me! Don’t [bleeping] touch me,’ And the guy turned his right hand and pushed Emzo’s face, and came around with a left hook and clocked him in the eye. I was walking up ... about four feet away. I heard the punch. It was solid. He hit him so hard, it looked like he broke his eye. That was one punch. That guy had a solid left hook."

Prosecutors say Emzo hit the off-duty cop "with a closed fist causing ... swelling, contusions, redness and substantial pain to the face and the back of the head." But another witness, a mechanic who worked nearby and saw the whole thing, also says, "I didn’t see any marks on [Egan], none at all." The charges could land Emzo in prison for up to seven years. He tells SI Live, "First day I came to this country 15 years ago, I work. Today is first day I don't work."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in News on June 4, 2010 11:03 AM

Comments [rss]

LB

lol, I guess when the cops processed his complaint they classified the incident as a "Slip and Fall" .

ribaldry

UPI REPORTING THEY BEAT HIM FOR BEING A WHINING IMMIGRANT PUSSY

wow 14th street

Staten Island is the sorriest place in NYC.

I feel sorry for those trapped there.

Imagine people always calling Manhattan "the city" funny.

xgeyiph772

True. I'd rather live in Queens, where women get raped and left for dead, or Brooklyn where 19 yr old girls get raped between cars parked on the street, then dragged to a wooded area and raped again. Or the Bronx, where...well, you get the idea.

Staten Island ain't paradise, but this shit happens all over the city. Almost 500,000 people are "trapped" in nice homes, with many friends, good restaurants and a decent sense of community. You should be so trapped.

Manitoba

nice homes and good restaurants! Good one - that's hilarious.

xgeyiph772

BTW, our good friend Kevin Walsh runs an excellent website called "Forgotten NY." Since you've never been out here, take a look at his latest posting about some nice n'hoods in central Staten Island, and tell me what a dump this place is. Real ugly homes, ain't they?

http://www.forgotten-ny.com/NEIGHBORHOODS/grant%20city/grant.html

kazubes

Gym tan laundry bro SI for life

xgeyiph772

Sorry, say again? No habla Bronx English.

xgeyiph772

Obviously you've never been inside some nice, historic home on SI and had dinner. I'm sure that 5th floor walk-up with no sunlight that you're paying $1800/month for is gorgeous. I just came from an excellent Italian restaurant where dinner cost me less than $15. You keep hating, we'll keep living.

dadoc

Once again, IF the cop is responsible, the monetary liability should be upon the cop, his livelihood, his pension, his home, his family, and the NYPD members' assets. The city (meaning we taxpayers)should NOT be responsible for the actions of an (alleged) road-raging goon just because he is employed by the city. Make THEM and not the NYC taxpayer (none of them live in NYC) responsible for the monetary penalties for cretinous and illegal behavior. Do that, and the behavior will stop. Once cops become aware that (let's just start with off-duty, then move on to on-duty rapes, etc) THEY will have to suffer the monetary consequences, behavior like this will disappear in a second. Aside from booze, bimbos and dodging public service, the only other thing that they focus on is their income, bennies and pension. Put that at risk, they'll toe the line.

Spirit of 76

On the face of it, a good idea. But I can't help wondering if that kind of policy might also make honest cops think, "I can do something perfectly legal and correct, but a jury can still find me guilty and cost me a ton of money. Maybe I shouldn't do anything at all, including arresting scumbags, murderers and drug dealers." Law of unintended consequences. There is no perfect system.

Reflect

cops on myspace? Police of cake!

LB

Ahhh, More "Cop acting bad" Lol, Reminds me of an incident five years ago when a friend of mine got into an argument with a cop over a ticket for parking in a bike lane . Funny thing was he wasn't actually parked in the bike lane , The cop was and my friend pointed that out and threatened to file a complaint . The Cop punched him in his face breaking his jaw ! Then turned around and arrested my friend for assaulting a cop . His partner tried whisking him off before witnesses could dial 911 prior to him arresting my friend . Long story short, My friend now lives in Aruba, and owns four homes in the U.S. . i hope this guy sues the shit of the city for this .

John L

The NYPD is out of control! They really, really are.

And since Bloomberg has the whole city and media paid off no one questions him or his commissioner's leadership. It's Friday anyway so Bloomberg is probably in the Bahamas right now, so this silly city business will have to wait till Monday.

To anyone trying to say the officer acted in self defense, please be rational. These witnesses have no reason to lie. However we all know about the "Blue Wall of Silence" and how they protect each other. Does anyone really think that the cops would come and do an impartial investigation involving one of their own? Really? Come on, you're smarter than that! Imagine a cop slapping handcuffs on another cop? It'll never happen. Cops get there, contact a union delegate, and they come up with a nice report and the other guy gets arrested, case closed.

I feel sorry for this guy because getting arrested really adds insult to injury and being that this happened in the most conservative borough, Staten Island, he really might end up in jail. In the Bronx a jury would probably pat him on the pack and send him home but in Staten Island ... he's in trouble. Good luck guy!

Petey

Because there isn't an article nearly every day about a bad cop. Some people are so blind.

just saying

Is this Anthony Egan the same 23 year old Anthony Egan shown wearing a cop uniform on myspace? Pls. note that he refers to himself as "InSane EgaN" (and who should know this better than himself?)

CASE CLOSED

http://www.myspace.com/417772303

just saying

lol, when you click on Anthony Egan's aka InSane EgaN's myspace pics, you're taken to a link with an advert on the bottom that says:

SinglesNet.com Find Gay Thugs

Meet Local Gay Thugs Near You

napalm

Where's Bloomberg or Ray Kerik or fat fuckin Lynch?

Yeah, they only appear when its the other way around.

I bet Ezmo, if he really wanted to, could have kicked the shit out of this punk ass bitch ass pig's ass if he wanted to

pal

bloomberg and kelly are pathetic. their weak leadership enables this kind of cave-man behavior.

napalm

Ezmo would have been better off just walking away from this dangerous off duty thug. But Ezmo didn't know that either way, he would be reading in the paper about the same cop killing himself in a NYPD routine drunk driving course anyways.