"Port Authority Police Department officers make such arrests knowing or believing that the majority of those arrested would ultimately be effectively forced to plead guilty to lesser charges such as disorderly conduct to avoid the public embarrassment and humiliation, potential jail sentences and fines, and potential reputational and professional harm associated with the false charges," the suit says. Officers target men that they "perceive as gay (based on appearance) or gender non-conforming," and may arrest the men to "boost ‘quality of life’ arrest statistics," the suit claims. Since then, however, the Port Authority Police Department has failed to train its officers in "non-discriminatory practices" and hasn’t investigated the incidents or monitored them for discriminatory patterns, according to the lawsuit. A jury ruled in his favor in November 2004. Martinez - who was later acquitted - sued the Port Authority and three of its police officers, according to the suit. The practice dates back to at least February 2000, when Port Authority Police arrested a man named Alejandro Martinez for public masturbation outside the men’s room at the World Trade Center’s PATH station concourse, the suit explains.
10, 2014. The suit claims Port Authority officers have continued to target and falsely arrest men on "baseless" public lewdness and exposure charges. The New York Times published an article about the alleged pattern of arrests at the bus terminal in October 2014, and Queens Councilman Daniel Dromm denounced the practice in a letter dated Oct. He was acquitted of a public lewdness charge in November 2014, after testifying in his own defense, the suit says. Mejia believes he was targeted by Port Authority officers "because of his appearance, in that his clothing, tattoos and jewelry were such that… officers perceived him to be gay or gender non-conforming," according to the suit. Like Holden, Mejia was arrested after a Port Authority officer claimed he’d been masturbating at a restroom urinal in July 2014, the suit says. The charges against Holden were ultimately dismissed in December 2014, the suit says. While Holden was in a holding cell, he heard Port Authority officers congratulating another officer and referring to one officer as "the gay whisperer," the suit says. The officer who had watched Holden in the bathroom signed a sworn affidavit claiming he’d seen Holden masturbating at the urinal, the suit says.
When Holden himself exited the restroom, Port Authority officers arrested him, handcuffed him and took him to a detention facility, where he was charged with public lewdness and "exposure of a person," according to the suit. Holden’s hands and genitals," before leaving the restroom, the suit alleges. The man stepped backward and looked around the wall between the urinals "in an apparent effort to see Mr. Holden was using a urinal inside a bus terminal restroom in May 2014 when he noticed a man he later learned was a Port Authority Police officer watching him from a urinal next to his, the suit says. The pair filed the proposed class action lawsuit against the Port Authority, its police department and several individual officers in Manhattan federal court Monday. Plaintiffs Cornell Holden and Miguel Mejia claim they were falsely arrested for public lewdness at the bus terminal in separate incidents in 2014. HELL’S KITCHEN - Port Authority Police officers target men they perceive as gay or gender non-conforming and falsely arrest them for masturbating at urinals inside the Eighth Avenue bus terminal, a new lawsuit charges.