NYPD

Traffic enforcer says officer beat him bloody for parking summons
BY JOHN MARZULLI DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Friday, May 16th 2008, 4:00 AM
Theodorakis/News
Traffic Agent Eric Celemi says he was beaten and arrested for ticketing car. His ear needed stitches.
An irate off-duty cop went wild and attacked a traffic agent for giving his girlfriend a ticket, but police decided it wasn't a felony - and ended up handcuffing the agent.
"If the NYPD doesn't show respect to us, what will happen with regular civilians?" said Traffic Agent Eric Celemi.
Celemi, 29, says Officer Eladro Mata beat him bloody last month after he ticketed the double-parked car in the Bronx.
Mata has been stripped of his badge and gun, but not charged with a felony, despite a law signed last month by Gov. Paterson that makes assaulting a traffic cop a crime punishable by up to seven years in prison.
Celemi contends he was not only beaten, but then hauled off to the 48th Precinct stationhouse in handcuffs for following his traffic supervisor's order to remain at the scene and wait for an ambulance.
Shocked and bleeding from the ear, Celemi was jeered by the crowd as an NYPD lieutenant ordered him cuffed.
"I had been writing tickets and people standing on the street were applauding when I got arrested," Celemi said.
"I always try to treat people in a nice way but I understand people don't like traffic agents. I knew that before I got the job and I learned it even more now."
In his 14 months on the job, Celemi never had trouble like he did on April 16 when writing up a red car illegally parked on Webster Ave.
Mata showed up with his girlfriend and displayed his police ID, Celemi said. When he tried to put the ticket on the windshield, Mata shoved him in the chest.
"I told him he didn't need to do that because I work for the NYPD just like he works for the NYPD," said Celemi, the married father of two girls.
Mata pushed the traffic agent again, then threw a flurry of punches to his face and head. Celemi said he got three stitches in his left ear at Montefiore Medical Center.
He told an Internal Affairs Bureau investigator he wanted to press charges against Mata, but nothing has happened.
A spokesman for the Bronx district attorney's office said the incident is under investigation.
Celemi's lawyer said traffic agents appear to be treated like a "subclass" in the NYPD.
"The City of New York would like the public to believe it protects its servants. It's a sad commentary that [Celemi] was mistreated by his own agency," said Eric Sanders of the Law Firm of Jeffrey Goldberg in Lake Success.
The NYPD had no immediate comment.