The video shows a stocky NYPD sergeant in a riot helmet forcefully shoving a female protester backward, sending her flying through the air. Seconds later, the sergeant approaches a male protester from behind, picks him off the ground in a bear hug and slams him head-first into the street. 

More than four years after those encounters at a 2020 George Floyd protest in Brooklyn, the Civilian Complaint Review Board — which investigates and prosecutes incidents of police misconduct — came to a tentative agreement with the sergeant, Bilal Ates.

He agreed to forfeit 10 vacation days in order to resolve the case and avoid a police department disciplinary trial — and perhaps a steeper penalty.

But roughly a week before NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban resigned last month following an FBI raid of his and his brother’s homes in Rockland County, Caban rejected the plea deal and let Ates walk with no discipline at all. 

It was the 16th time this year that Caban rejected plea deals between the CCRB and police officers that would have included discipline and instead imposed none.

As commissioner, Caban had the right to unilaterally determine the penalty in disciplinary cases, but plea deals with the CCRB — which the officers accused of misconduct must also agree to — had rarely been overruled under prior commissioners. Caban zeroed out the discipline in plea deals more often in nine months than all the commissioners had in the 10 prior years combined. 

The cases where he imposed no discipline included that of an officer whom the CCRB found had restricted a man’s breathing and improperly held him down by the head in Brooklyn in December 2019. 

In another case, the board found a sergeant had used improper force against two people — pulling one by the hair — in September 2021, while trying to arrest one of them on a bench warrant. In both cases, the CCRB had sought docking the cops 10 vacation days as punishment in the plea deals, which the officer and sergeant agreed to.

Gideon Oliver, an attorney for the young man who was body slammed, Jack Norton, said it was “disappointing” that the CCRB offered Ates a plea deal rather than going through with an istrative trial, calling the plea deal offered “lenient,” but adding that at least the CCRB did something.

“Former Commissioner Caban’s rejection of even the lenient plea deal and decision not to impose any discipline is right in line with the city’s apparently bottomless of brutal cops under Mayor Eric Adams, but inconsistent with ability or anything resembling justice,” he told THE CITY.

Rejecting plea deals was one of many tools Caban used to reduce the discipline imposed on of the NYPD despite a pledge by Adams when he was running for mayor to bolster ability for the department while boosting enforcement of city laws.

As reported by ProPublica, Caban took action on dozens of CCRB cases before disciplinary trials could be held and imposed lesser penalties than those sought by the board at the highest rate in recent history. 

The news organization also reported that, without even reviewing the board’s findings, the NYPD tossed hundreds of CCRB disciplinary determinations because a statute of limitations for imposing a penalty was approaching. The NYPD argued that it wasn’t afforded enough time to conduct a proper review in those instances, even when it had had months to examine many of them.

Caban also decided against discipline in two highly sensitive cases following decisions by NYPD istrative judge Rosemarie Maldonado, who ruled against the CCRB in its prosecution of Chief of Department shooting death of Kawaski Trawick in April 2019. 

Also, as THE CITY has reported, just three days before his resignation, Caban lowered the presumptive penalty for a host of misconduct determinations.

These included ones for failing to document a complaint of an alleged crime from an individual and for conducting an improper search, even though the department has been under a federal monitor for nearly a decade for its unconstitutional implementation of stop and frisk tactics.

Caban did not respond to a voicemail seeking comment.

He has not been charged with wrongdoing in the federal probe, which reportedly centers on allegations that his brother, James Caban, a former NYPD officer, sought cash from nightlife establishments in exchange for getting the police department to back off from enforcement of violations.

City Hall spokesperson Amaris Cockfield didn’t address questions about Caban’s disciplinary record directly but claimed, without providing evidence or data, that the NYPD no longer allows misconduct cases “to languish for years.”

“The NYPD will always evaluate cases to improve their internal case process as they work to further reform the department, and the mayor has been clear that he expects a Police Department that is professional, impartial and just,” she said.  

‘Highly Dangerous’

Ates was among a group of officers trying to clear protesters from Fourth Avenue near Pacific Street in downtown Brooklyn late on June 2, 2020 while their colleagues were making arrests in the middle of the street. 

An investigation by the department’s Brooklyn South bureau found that Ates used reasonable force in both incidents that night, in part because he was trying to protect his colleagues from protesters who were disobeying repeated orders to get on the sidewalk.

But a separate probe by the Civilian Complaint Review Board questioned Ates’ aggressiveness in both instances captured on camera by protest participant Daniel Atschuler.

Reached by THE CITY, Atschuler said he was troubled by the outcome.

“I’m horrified to learn that this officer will walk scot-free after shoving and body-slamming protesters in plain sight,” he told THE CITY. “How can New Yorkers have any confidence in the NYPD when Mayor Adams and his hand-picked leaders keep standing in the way of ability for gross misconduct?”

The CCRB report noted that the unidentified female protester had her “hands up in a non-threatening manner and begins to walk backwards and away from the arrest in compliance with officers’ directives” when, the report said, Ates forcefully shoved her.

“At this point, Sgt. Ates’ stated desire was to ensure the unidentified female went to the sidewalk,” the report says. “Conversely, his push causes her to move further into the street and away from the sidewalk, the strength of which is apparent in the female’s bodily response.”

When it came to Ates’ encounter with Norton, the male protester, the report noted that Ates contended he used the “minimal and reasonable” amount of force to protect an officer who was standing near Norton.

It said that Ates expressed concern in interviews with CCRB investigators that Norton “would assault this officer by potentially striking or grabbing him, or possibly reaching for his firearm.”

For his part, Norton said he was simply voicing his concern about the arrests of other protesters, and that he didn’t see Ates approach him from behind. 

“His right shoulder hit the ground first, then his head. His legs were in the air as he landed,” the report said. “[Norton’s] vision went dark for at least a couple of seconds. He felt stunned, dizzy and disoriented, and he was shocked by the surprise body slam. He realized soon after that he had a bleeding injury from his head due to this interaction.”

CCRB investigators concluded that Ates’ testimony of trying to protect his fellow officers was “not consistent” with the video, and that his takedown of Norton not only didn’t conform to his training but was needlessly hazardous .

“The way Sgt. Ates slammed [Norton] to the ground was highly dangerous as [Norton]’s head made direct with the ground, resulting in visible injuries.”

Norton couldn’t be reached for comment. He reached a $166,000 settlement with the city, including $41,000 in attorneys’ fees, in April 2023, in response to a federal lawsuit he filed in August 2021.

Reached by phone, Ates declined comment, said he was retired, and referred a reporter to his attorney, John D’Alessandro. A message left for D’Alessandro wasn’t answered.

Ates had 61 allegations of misconduct filed against him over his 20-year career, according to the website 50-a.org, although just three of those complaints were substantiated by the CCRB.