Suit: Nassau cops fabricated allegations against retired Suffolk officer

Nassau police officers fabricated criminal allegations and falsely arrested a retired Suffolk cop to cover up misconduct by an Internal Affairs detective during a 2019 road rage incident, according to a federal lawsuit filed last month in Central Islip. 

The lawsuit was filed by former police lieutenant William F. Hasper, a West Point graduate who served in the U.S. Army’s elite Airborne Rangers during the first Gulf War. It contends Nassau detectives knew Det. Sgt. William S. Russell of the department's Internal Affairs Unit lied when he said Hasper hit him with his pickup during a Feb. 15, 2019 confrontation in a bank parking lot.

“They wanted to arrest Hasper immediately out of malice, as retribution for" angering Russell, said the suit, filed May 25 in the Eastern District of New York, which contends other detectives were protecting Russell. 

The complaint also alleges Hasper was held at gunpoint by Suffolk police officers three weeks after the incident because Nassau cops issued a false alert that said the retired officer’s pickup truck had been stolen.

Hasper’s lawsuit names Nassau County, Russell and several other police detectives as defendants. County, police and Nassau Detectives Association representatives declined to comment on the lawsuit. 

“Nassau County does not comment on current or anticipated litigation,” a spokeswoman for County Executive Laura Curran said Thursday. 

Court papers say the road rage incident began after Russell, on duty but dressed in plainclothes and driving an unmarked vehicle, waited at the entrance of the parking lot at the Bethpage Federal Credit Union on Old Country Road in Westbury for a spot to open up. 

One of Hasper’s attorneys said the lawsuit, coming amid the national uproar over policing and protests over police brutality, raised questions about how law-enforcement agencies monitor wrongdoing among their own ranks. 

“Many Internal Affairs officers are honest and conscientious in the exercise of their responsibilities,” said Mirel Fisch of the Law Office of Anthony Grandinette in Mineola, which represents Hasper. “However, If an Internal Affairs officer had no qualms about fabricating an account against a retired Police Lieutenant, others certainly would not hesitate to bury the truth pertaining to complaints lodged by underprivileged individuals in society.”

Hasper’s lawsuit names Nassau County, Russell and several other police detectives as defendants. County, police and Nassau Detectives Association representatives declined to comment on the lawsuit. 

Hasper, who retired in 2012 from the Suffolk police department after almost 20 years because of a disability, tried to follow Russell into the parking lot. The Internal Affairs detective became enraged after Hasper honked his horn at Russell, the complaint said. 

Russell and Hasper exchanged heated words, according to the complaint, which said Russell failed to identify himself as a police officer. Russell used his body to block the truck when Hasper, hoping to avoid a physical confrontation, tried to drive away, court papers say. 

Russell called Inspector Nicholas Stillman, the commanding officer of the Nassau Police Internal Affairs Unit, who then called Third Squad detectives and told them that Russell had been involved in an incident at the credit union, court papers say. Russell had worked at the Third Squad for 10 years, the lawsuit said. Stillman is not named as a defendant.

Hasper learned the following day that Nassau police wished to arrest him and he surrendered on Feb. 17 at the Third Squad. He was charged with assault, reckless endangerment and several traffic violations. A Nassau judge found Hasper not guilty of the assault charges in February but guilty of reckless endangerment and most of the traffic violations.  Fisch said the former cop plans to appeal the convictions. 

The lawsuit said Suffolk police stopped Hasper in Deer Park three weeks after the incident with Russell because they had received an alert from Nassau cops that said Hasper’s truck had been stolen. The lawsuit claims the false alert was sent because the officers were angry that, at the time of his arrest, Hasper had refused to let them search his truck without a warrant. 

Hasper was ordered to get out of his vehicle at gunpoint and lie on the ground. He was held in the back of a Suffolk patrol car for more than an hour before being released. Nassau police seized his vehicle for 10 days and searched it without his consent, the suit says. 

Hasper was also pulled over in May 2019 in Queens by a New York State trooper, who said the truck had been reported as stolen by Nassau police, the suit says.