A Bronx cop with a history of misconduct allegations, included one the city paid $744,000 to settle, could now lose both his job and his freedom over an accusation he used a chokehold to subdue a man.
Officer Omar Habib — who has already been placed on dismissal probation three times — will appear at One Police Plaza Thursday for a departmental trial in which an NYPD prosecutor will argue Habib used a chokehold, banned by the department in 1993, while arresting a drunken man at a catering hall on Eastchester Road on July 28, 2023.
Habib also faces a criminal trial in state Supreme Court in the Bronx, possibly as soon as next month, for the same incident. Because of a local law passed in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, the alleged chokehold is being charged as a crime, a misdemeanor.
Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark, annoucing Habib’s indictment last year, said he choked the victim so hard he “impeded the man’s breathing and circulation, resulting in his temporary loss of consciousness”
Habib pleaded not guilty to charges of strangulation, criminal obstruction of breathing or blood circulation, assault and using an unlawful method of restraint.
Habib’s body-worn camera footage from the incident, played at a court hearing, showed Habib and other officers tussling with the man in the back of ambulance after he was told he was going to be arrested after being treated at a hospital for injuries from the fight. That’s when Habib allegedly used a chokehold.
It’s not clear from the footage, and Habib is heard refuting the man’s claim he was choked. Later Habib, while driving his patrol car to the hospital, can be heard on camera chastising himself.
“What’d you do, bro?” Habib said, according to a Gothamist report.
He is currently on modified duty with the NYPD, stripped of his gun and shield and assigned to the Viper Unit, which monitors housing project surveillance cameras. Neither he nor his lawyer responded to requests for comment.
Habib, who joined the NYPD in January 2007, has a track record of disciplinary action. He was first disciplined for a September 2009 incident in which he was accused of punching a handcuffed suspect in the face after taking him to the bathroom inside the 40th Precinct stationhouse to search him for contraband.
After Habib was slapped with departmental charges, an NYPD judge later ruled that Habib “flip-flopped in his trial testimony regarding this matter,” according to disciplinary records.
Habib was put on dismissal probation, meaning he could have been fired for any subsequent wrongdoing within a year, and was docked 40 days pay.
He was also placed on dismissal probation after pleading guilty to fixing two summonses in another disciplinary matter, the department-wide ticket fixing scandal.
In another incident, the city paid Dennis Prewitt $744,000 a year ago to settle a lawsuit alleging Habib choked him in an elevator on Nov. 23. 2017, Thanksgiving Day.
Habib and other officers had responded to a report of an assault at Prewitt’s building on Wales Ave. in Mott Haven. Prewitt, who was not involved in the incident, saw the officers on the elevator, asked where they were heading, sparking an argument that escalated when Prewitt admitted he derided them as “Keystone Kops” because they were having trouble finding the apartment in question.
Surveillance video from inside the elevator shows the cops leaving the elevator then immediately coming back inside, with one officer using a Taser on Prewitt and Habib grabbing him in what Prewitt described as a chokehold.
“They put me on my chest and one cop stepped on my back. I couldn’t breathe – I’m an asthmatic,” Prewitt said.
Prewitt was taken to Lincoln Hospital for treatment and was not charged with a crime.
The Civilian Complaint Review Board substantiated a chokehold allegation against Habib, and he was again placed on dismissal probation and docked 30 days pay.
Prewitt, now 63, last week said he’s not suprised at the latest allegation against Habib. Prewitt’s lawyer, Michael Braverman, said the NYPD easily could have fired Habib for past issues.
“That dude should already be doing time,” Prewitt told The News. “He should have never been allowed to become a cop.”
In addition to the current chokehold case, Habib faces discipline for a pending case, brought by the CCRB, which substantiated allegations that he verbally sexually harassed someone he encountered on the street and was also discourteous to that person.
Habib in an unrelated incident in 2019 was accused of discourtesy, records show. The CCRB substantiated the allegation and Habib was given instructions — an account, placed in an officer’s personnel file, that tells the officer what was done wrong and how the incident should have been handled.
