This time, it was an undercover NYPD named Winston McDonald, a 2012 [__“Cop of the Month”__](http://www.qgazette.com/news/2012-03-07/Features/Crime_Up_In_114th_Precinct_So_Is_Awareness.html) recipient, who claimed four men tried to mug him at knifepoint outside a Brooklyn hardware store last month.
The suspects, however, claim the cop approached them inside a hardware store, flashing money, looking to buy drugs.
One of the men, Peterson Duplan, recognized McDonald as a cop who had arrested years ago.
“Get the fuck out of here,” Duplan told him, according to the [__New York Daily News.__](http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/video-contradicts-claims-men-robbed-brooklyn-article-1.2494825)
More words were exchanged before Duplan and his three friends walked out of the hardware store.
McDonald then followed them out, walking closely behind.
The video shows they all walk down the block, out of frame, where they were eventually arrested.
The way McDonald described it, he was held up at knifepoint directly outside the hardware.
He even testified that Duplan walked up with a switchblade knife and said, “give me your money or I will stab you,” according to [__Gothamist.__](http://gothamist.com/2016/01/13/surveillance_footage_vs_cop.php)
He said the other men surrounded him, telling him, “we are going to fuck you up.”
He also said a crowd of people gathered, a detail cops love to add to reports, thinking it adds to the drama.
But the video shows there was no crowd of people. And that no confrontation took place outside the store.
In fact, no switchblade knife was ever recovered.
Nevertheless, Duplan, 28, and his friends, Jean Scott, 33; Ricardi Joseph, 29; and Samanta Dabel, 24, are still facing attempted robbery charges, which can land them all in prison for 15 years.
The video contains no audio and it’s difficult to decipher what is going on because McDonald, wearing a gray hoodie, has his face blurred out, courtesy of the New York Daily News, which broke the story, apparently feeling the need to protect the lying cop who has no qualms about destroying lives.
McDonald is also listed in a [__civil rights lawsuit__](https://dockets.justia.com/docket/new-york/nyedce/1:2015cv04015/372536) filed by a man named Naquan Fedd in 2015 as well as [__another lawsuit__](https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/3986734/Ramirez_v_The_City_of_New_York_et_al) filed by a man named Dennis Ramirez from 2014.
Those lawsuits are unable to be accessed unless one has accounts at Justia or Pacer, so if any lawyer has a few minutes to spare, we would greatly appreciate being able to post the suits for our readers.
Last month, [__another NYPD cop, Jonathan Munoz,__](http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2015/12/nypd-cop-charged-with-felonies-for-arresting-man-trying-to-record-him-pawing-woman/) was charged with felonies for falsifying an arrest, exposed only because of overhead surveillance cameras.
He went with the old “fighting stance” description in his arrest report, another detail cops love to include to add to the drama.
**UPDATE:** Thanks to a reader, we have obtained the two lawsuits McDonald was supposedly named in. The 2014 lawsuit filed by Ramirez does not list his name, but he is probably one of the ten “Officer John/Jane Does” named in the suit.
In [__the 2014 suit__](http://photographyisnotacrime.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Ramirez-v.-The-City-of-New-York-et-al.pdf), Dennis Ramirez claims he was standing on a street corner when several NYPD officers frisked him and took him to jail on drug charges, only for the charges to be dismissed.
In [__the 2015 suit__](http://photographyisnotacrime.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Fedd-v.-The-City-of-New-York-et-al.pdf), Naquan Fedd says he was also falsely arrested on drug charges after McDonald pulled his pants down in front of several officers, exposing his penis, but finding no drugs. His charges were also dismissed.
