A Long Island woman is suing the New York Police Department after accusing a cop from the 104th Precinct of stealing personal nude photos off her cell phone.
Pamela Held, 29, filed a lawsuit last month against Officer Sean Christian, charging him with taking her phone while she was in custody after being pulled over on Cypress Avenue near the Brooklyn-Queens border and having nude photos of her sent to his phone while she was in another room, court records showed.
The NYPD slapped the 104th cop with charges of misconduct, but he remained on duty at the Ridgewood-based precinct, the department said.
Held, a Deer Park native, was pulled over in February and was cited for driving with an expired inspection before officers then found prescription drugs inside her car, according to a criminal complaint. Cops found four Oxycodone pills, two amphetamines and one Suboxone inside her car and arrested her for not having appropriate prescriptions for those pills.
Held, whose drug charges were eventually dismissed, did not return requests seeking comment.
Upon arriving to the 104th Precinct station house, court records showed Held was being questioned as to where she was before putting her through the booking process. She offered up her cell phone as an alibi, showing officers she was with a friend and had text messages to prove it.
That was when, according to the complaint, she gave her iPhone to an officer and told him her security code before he left the room. It was not until after she was released from the precinct house with a desk appearance ticket that she noticed Christian had been flirting with her and 20 scandalous photos and five videos of her had been forwarded to an unknown number, which she later found was Christian’s.
The criminal complaint Held filed said Christian, who has 11 years of experience with the Police Department, escorted her to her car after her release on Feb. 6, telling her she was a “nice girl” and “should stop hanging out with the wrong crowd.”
A subsequent investigation made for a controlled phone call between Held and Christian, the complaint said, in which the cop admitted to having the sexually explicit photos and videos. He proceeded to tell Held “not to worry about it” and continued flirting with her over the phone and asking her if she had a boyfriend.
He even called her back after that phone call was dropped and continued to speak with Held for 45 minutes, the complaint said.
The NYPD said Christian would receive a departmental trail and misconduct charges if a plea deal is not reached, resulting in anything from the loss of vacation days to probation or termination.
By Phil Corso
