A New York Police Department officer was arrested on Wednesday for using an FBI database to obtain information on a man he later pepper-sprayed while on duty.
Officer Admir Kacamakovic, a seven-year veteran assigned to Brooklyn's 62nd Precinct, has been charged with violating the civil rights of a patron of a bar owned by the officer's cousin.
The officer allegedly obtained the information at the behest of his cousin, who has been prosecuted for narcotics trafficking.
On July 5, 2008, Kacamakovic, while on duty and in uniform, allegedly assaulted with pepper spray, handcuffed and detained a man involved in a parking dispute in front of the bar owned by Kacamakovic's cousin. Kacamakovic apparently told the man that "no one f***s with my cousin's place." Kacamakovic also pepper-sprayed a second person during the incident.
The victim filed both a complaint against Kacamakovic with the Civilian Complaint Review Board and a civil action in New York state court.
Kacamakovic also allegedly accessed the federal database on behalf of his cousin in a separate matter. Between 2008 and 2009, Kacamakovic's cousin was the subject of an FBI investigation for narcotics trafficking and other crimes. Two federal undercover agents posed as individuals who could provide the cousin with actual Virginia state driver's licenses that could be used by illegal aliens and other criminal associates of the cousin.
At the cousin's request, the undercover agents obtained a Virginia driver's license containing a photograph and name that had been supplied by the cousin. Upon receiving the driver's license from the agents, the cousin stated that he would "let his cousin run through it." As charged in the complaint, computer and telephone records reveal that about one month later, Kacamakovic used the NYPD's computer system to access the federal database to search the name contained in the driver's license supplied to Kacamakovic's cousin by the undercover agents.
"I want to commend the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau for its important work in uncovering police misconduct and in bringing to justice those who dishonor themselves and the department," said Commissioner Raymond Kelly in a release.
The complaint charges Kacamakovic with two felony counts and two misdemeanor counts. If convicted of all counts, he faces a maximum sentence of 17 years' imprisonment.