Friday, March 11th, 2011

A classical pianist who was attending a production of Hamlet at the Met (near Columbus and 64th) is suing the NYPD for an alleged scuffle with cops, according to The New York Post.  Aviva Aranovich filed papers with the Manhattan Supreme Court this week claiming that a hotheaded cop escorted her out of the opera house by smashing her head into a railing and letting her fall down a marble stairway, and later slammed the door of his patrol car on her ankle, as he took her to the 20th Precinct for allegedly misplacing her ticket.  She also claimed the nightmare wasn’t over once she got to the station house, where the officer then repeatedly smacked her on the head and denied her medical attention before two other cops took her to the hospital.  Once arriving to the hospital, Aranovich was diagnosed with a concussion.  Her suit alleges “brutal police conduct” and “excessive force.”  The NYPD has replied with a different story of the evening, with a spokesman saying that the woman became “belligerent” when police showed up at Lincoln Center, according to arresting officers.  “She struggled with the officers” and hurt her ankle kicking out a window in the police car, later refusing EMS aid and being taken to Bellevue for psychiatric observation.  NYPD spokesman Paul Browne concluded the response by stating that her abuse claim was investigated and the cop was “exonerated.”

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Tags: Aviva Aranovich, Lawyers, Metropolitan Opera, NYPD