Officer publicly beat two people who ‘posed no danger’ within one month, feds say
A police officer publicly beat two people during separate, “unprompted” attacks that unfolded in the streets of a New Jersey city within one month, according to federal prosecutors.
Both of them “posed no danger” to Paterson Police Department officer Kevin Patino “or anyone else,” prosecutors said.
More than three years later, Patino, 32, of Wayne, pleaded guilty to civil rights charges on Feb. 8, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey announced in a news release.
“Mr. Patino, a decorated police officer and veteran, deserves to put this matter behind him,” his defense attorney, Todd A. Spodek, told McClatchy News in a statement on Feb. 9.
It wasn’t until Patino’s plea hearing on Feb. 8 that federal officials disclosed he was charged in connection with the first assault against a man in Paterson before the second assault on a 19-year-old weeks later, the Paterson Press reported.
In April 2021, the attorney’s office announced Patino and another Paterson police officer were charged in connection with the second assault.
What happened?
The first beating occurred after Patino responded to an officer’s call for backup on Main Street in Paterson on Nov. 26, 2020, according to prosecutors.
When Patino arrived at the scene, he watched his fellow officer, who was trying to disperse a crowd, get into a “verbal exchange” with a man, prosecutors said.
Patino told the man to move away from the officer, but the man didn’t listen, according to prosecutors.
Then, Patino pushed the man, who “walked away” from him, prosecutors said.
“Patino also began to walk away but then returned to confront the victim” and “pushed the victim into the street,” according to prosecutors.
Then, he threw the man down and repeatedly struck him as he was on the ground, prosecutors said.
While Patino was hitting the man, another officer handcuffed him, according to prosecutors, who wrote in court documents that he “used unreasonable and excessive force.”
He’s also accused of filing false police reports to hide what happened, prosecutors said.
The second attack
During the second assault on Dec. 14, 2020, Patino and another officer were in an unmarked police car when they responded to a report of a “suspicious person” in Paterson, according to the attorney’s office.
Patino and other police officers ultimately found the suspected suspicious person, and as some officers spoke with this individual, a man was walking to work nearby, court documents say.
This man stopped to watch the officers’ interaction with the other individual before he continued to walk down the street, according to prosecutors.
“After the officers ended their encounter with the individual, Patino and another officer drove away in their unmarked police vehicle,” prosecutors said.
The officer driving the vehicle made a sharp turn to follow the man who was headed to work and parked, according to prosecutors.
Patino and the other Paterson police officer, Kendry Tineo-Restituyo, stepped out of the vehicle and approached the man before an attack ensued, the attorney’s office said in an earlier news release.
Patino grabbed the man and repeatedly hit him in the face and his body after he tried to “separate himself” from Patino, prosecutors said.
As Patino was beating him, Tineo-Restituyo “picked the victim up and threw him to the ground,” according to prosecutors, who said the pair then “repeatedly struck” him.
McClatchy News contacted Tineo-Restituyo’s defense attorneys for comment on Feb. 9 and didn’t receive an immediate response.
In February 2021, the New Jersey Council on American-Islamic Relations published a video of the assault and demanded the two officers be fired for the attack on the 19-year-old, who CAIR said is a Muslim Arab-American.
“The disturbing video shows two officers approach and beat the youth to the ground … He was later diagnosed with head trauma and a concussion,” CAIR-NJ Executive Director Selaedin Maksut said in a news release issued at the time.
After the beating, Patino and Tineo-Restituyo lied in a police report, accusing the 19-year-old of “screaming profanities,” “acting belligerent,” and punching Patino, the attorney’s office said.
Now, Patino has pleaded guilty to a superseding information that charges him with two counts of violating an individual’s civil rights, prosecutors said.
Spodek told McClatchy News he “wholeheartedly” applauds “the US Attorney’s Office’s decision to offer a misdemeanor resolution to the case on the eve of trial and dismiss the indictment.”
The indictment previously charged Patino with “one count of conspiracy against rights by depriving a man of his constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by law enforcement officers, one count of deprivation of rights under color of law and two counts of falsification of records,” according to the attorney’s office.
Patino and Tineo-Restituyo are on paid administrative leave, according to the Paterson Press.
A conference will be held in court on Feb. 15 about whether Tineo-Restituyo wants to waive a jury trial, records show.
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