Judge tosses protester’s NYPD brutality lawsuit after evidence dismantles ‘activist’ story: ‘Utterly discredited’
A federal judge has tossed a police brutality lawsuit filed by a Big Apple protester who claimed she was roughed up by cops during a demonstration — after NYPD bodycam showed she made it all up.
Kimberly Bernard claimed she was manhandled by New York’s Finest on May 8, 2023, and was left bruised, battered and bleeding outside an NYPD stationhouse while protesting the subway chokehold death of vagrant Jordan Neely one week earlier, court records show.
But US District Court Judge Denise Cote said in her Aug. 28 decision that police bodycam footage and eyewitness accounts didn’t back up Bernard’s story — and dismissed the claims.
“Bernard’s claims of excessive force are utterly discredited by the body camera footage submitted in connection with this motion,” the judge wrote in the 20-page decision.
“That footage clearly shows that there was no visible injury to her face, arms or shoulders during more than a half hour following her arrest,” Cote wrote. “The video footage also shows that the handcuffs were loosely hanging at Bernard’s wrists, such that she was able to freely slide them up her wrists.”
Bernard’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.
The mother of three identifies herself as an organizer and activist on her online profiles, speaking at a 2021 demonstration at Washington Square Park and taking part in a 2020 “Black Lives Matter” march on Washington DC as co-founder of Black Woman’s March, according to reports.
Her more recent brush with the law began on May 6, 2023,when she joined a crowd of demonstrators at the Lexington Avenue and 63rd Street station to protest Neely’s death after a transit clash with ex-Marine Daniel Penny five days earlier.
Penny was eventually arrested but later acquitted of wrongdoing.
Bernard allegedly jumped onto the subway tracks, holding up Q train service for an hour.
Although she was not busted then, cops allegedly recognized her from surveillance footage two days later, when she joined a new crowd of demonstrators outside the 7th Precinct station house in Manhattan — and arrested her for the earlier trespassing.
She claimed in her federal lawsuit, filed on Aug. 7, 2024, seeking $150,000 that cops “forcibly grabbed” her and “shoved her into a brick building façade before pinning her against the wall.
“As a result of defendants’ conduct, Ms. Bernard has suffered physical and emotional injuries, pain and suffering, the effects of which are ongoing,” the lawsuit said. “The full extent of Ms. Bernard’s injuries is not yet known.”
Her lawsuit names the city, NYPD brass and more than a dozen unidentified police officers.
However, the judge said that bodycam footage “depicts a different version of events.”
Cote said the video shows Bernard’s demeanor was “relaxed throughout” her arrest, and said the video did not show any of the injuries she later claimed to have suffered.
While Bernard cited photos that “show light scratches and a bruise on an upper arm,” she did not say when those were taken, while the judge noted that the person in those pics “appears to be wearing a garment of a different color than the one Bernard wore at the time of her arrest.”
Cate then dismissed the suit by granting the city’s request for a judgment.
The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment on the ruling.
