"You're A Racist," Mom Told Cop Before Rough Arrest

The 30th Precinct station house in Harlem

Retired NYPD officer Merault Almonor and his wife, Wilma Dore-Almonor, are currently on trial, facing felony assault charges for a 2010 fracas in a Harlem police station. You may recall that the incident started after the couple went to pick up their teenage son who was arrested, they claim, in a case of racial profiling. And when an emotional Dore-Almonor barged into the stationhouse cursing and yelling (while her husband looked for parking), the situation devolved quickly. Yesterday she told her side of the story.

According to the Daily News, Dore-Almonor testified that when she identified her son at the stationhouse "in a tumble of words," a cop "barked" back, "If you don't calm down, we'll have to ask you to leave. She claims another told her, "Get out or we'll have you arrested," and soon she found herself surrounded by "five or six cops."

Then the officer who had arrested her son, Brian Dennis, emerged, and she told him, "I know that you’re a racist because I’ve seen you in action." That didn't exactly defuse the situation, and she testified that Dennis told the other cops to arrest her. According to Dore-Almonor, a female officer punched her in the face, and they tackled her to the floor. “They kept kicking me,” Dore-Almonor testified, the Times reports, “stepping on my back and they were laughing."

Her husband arrived to find his wife under arrest, and prosecutors allege that her husband punched a female cop in the face, sending her to the floor. Prosecutors also claim Dore-Almonor set the stage for her arrest by storming into the stationhouse yelling, "Get those f - - -ing cuffs off my son!" Almonor is charged with felony assault, Dore-Almonor with resisting arrest and trespassing. Their son, who was arrested during a stop-and-frisk, had been collared because prosecutors say he "reached toward his waistband as the police approached," but it's unclear if he was ever formally charged with anything. The family is suing the city.

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By John Del Signore in News on April 20, 2011 10:46 AM

Comments [rss]

Concerned Cop

This is One Sad case that the parties involved are attempting to try this case in the media. As in most cases involving incidents with the police of this nature, race is always thrown in to the mix. The parties involved, along with certain other individuals who were also not present at the time the son was stopped, have no knowledge of what transpired.
There are reasons why the arrest process was done and handled in the manner in which it was, however those reasons are not being explored publicly in the press by the parties concerned, because “they” don’t want it exposed. The issue was not even addressed during the trial proceedings as well.
This incident is all about money, it has been since the beginning, when a news conference was held, announcing their intent to sue, for an easy pay-check.
The arrests made were based solely on people’s actions that evening, had absolutely nothing to do with race at all.
There are many people who claim that camera’s should be in place inside precincts to protect “innocent” people. But lets face it if cameras were in place in the precinct that night, I’m sure the defense attorneys would have made the motion to have them “excluded in order to protect their clients”, you cant win, nor have it both ways.
Get a grip people, it is what it is.

coolmikeperry

Cop's child arrested? Cop's wife arrested. Cop's wife's back stepped on? Female cop punched in the face? Cop arrested? I'm confused, were there no innocent African Americans or Latinos available that day?

Kyle Petersen

Woman was wrong to do what she did, but her son was arrested in a stop-and-frisk. Stop-and-frisk is unconstitutional and she is right to be outraged.

mathew reich

it is not unconstitutional. learn the law before you quote it!!!

Inconcievable de Impublishable

What quote?

l3iodeez

Also, contrary to common practice, mouthing off to the cops isn't an arrestable offence.

MermaidFornicator

i agree, this lady may be a loud-mouthed entitled moron but that is not a crime. also "resisting arrest" is the stupidest charge & how is she trespassing on public property?

l3iodeez

Ive said it before and Ill say it again. Lapel cameras for all on-duty cops. Just build it into the badge. No working camera, no badge, not on duty.

FU Boy

While I want to rage at the police for brutality, what the hell was this woman thinking? Charging into a police station screaming at how assholic the police are?

Maybe she was riding a bit of "my husband's an ex-cop so you can't touch me" arrogance.

In any case, this outcome is not unexpected.

imadick

you should be allowed to curse out a cop, a politician, whoever, without fear that you'll be beaten and then charged with a felony.

while possibly not unexpected, don't blame the victim.

FU Boy

Should, yes. Death By Cop shouldn't happen either - but it does. This isn't a utopia, if you hadn't noticed.

And, as a side note: sexual harassment / rape cases - I'll never blame the victim. When someone abandons common sense and spits in the face of a group known for abuses of power - in their own home, no less - I say she's partly to blame.

Gwinny

I live in the 30th precinct and work with these officers all the time. I'm not the biggest fan of the NYPD for many reasons, but the officers in this station have never been anything but helpful and courteous. In short, I call BS on this woman's story.

Bernie_Geotz_Squirrel_Luv

We really should have cameras in police stations. You would think NYC would be OK with that idea. You know because we got cameras everywhere but.....

TheGreatCommie

They do have cameras, but I bet they 'malfunctioned' that night.

Bernie_Geotz_Squirrel_Luv

Of course, nothing ever works in this City.

TimeDown

Well then we would see proof of all the things the police are accused of. It would make it difficult for them to lie about it later. But here it seems like there is something missing. I don't completely buy this woman's version of the story.

Guest

there were cameras in the police station in the first terminator film

Ken Pryde

That was LA though :/
Arnie could run rampage through the precincts here with cyborg-aplomb.

FU Boy

I'd ask "How the hell do we NOT have cameras in police stations," but then I thought "Protecting the police is more important to the city than protecting it's citizens."

I mean, if there were cameras and audio recorders in precincts, the question of quotas wouldn't even be a question. And that's not mentioning brutality and disrespect such as what's described here.