Stop-And-Frisk Trial Sees NYPD Officer Cormack Joyce Testify

An NYPD officer who stopped, questioned and frisked a black man trying to open a front door of a house with keys in 2008 testified Thursday that he saw a "suspicious bulge" on him -- an assertion the officer didn't record in paperwork.

Officer Cormack Joyce could not say where on David Floyd he saw the "suspicious bulge," which suggested to him that Floyd may have had a weapon. Floyd was searched during the encounter on Feb. 27, 2008, outside of his apartment in the Bronx and no weapon was found on him.

Joyce, testifying in federal court in Manhattan in a class-action challenging the department's stop-and-frisk policy, said that after the stop, he filled out the required paperwork, including what led to it.

Joyce acknowledged he did not check the box that indicated "suspicious bulge" on the form.

He also acknowledged that he failed to record the details of the stop in his personal activity log, as required by NYPD policy.

Joyce and Officer Eric Hernandez, both assigned to the anti-crime unit in the 43rd Precinct in the Bronx in 2008, testified Thursday in the second week of trial. Floyd is a plaintiff in the suit. The policy is the subject of two other federal lawsuits.

Floyd's suit alleges officers were stopping, questioning and frisking people based on their race, not reasonable suspicion of criminal behavior.

The plaintiffs want U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin in Manhattan to rein in the NYPD's use of the tactic with better procedures and tighter monitoring.

Last week, Floyd, 33, a medical student, testified that the police stopped him twice, once in 2007 while he was walking from the subway to his Bronx home, and again in 2008 outside his house while he was helping a fellow renter try and unlock his apartment door.

The officers and their supervisor, Sgt. James Kelly, all testified Thursday there had been a pattern of burglaries in the neighborhood and when they saw Floyd and the other man "jostling" at the doorknob, they suspected the men were trying to break in to the house.

However, during cross-examination by one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, Hernandez said the seven burglaries in the neighborhood took place about a mile away from Floyd's home and most took place more than a month before the stop. ___

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