New York judge caught on camera shoving police officer
Police did not charge judge Mark Grisanti following incident
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A state Supreme Court justice was caught shoving a police officer in newly released body camera footage from the incident.
It showed justice Mark Grisanti, who was shirtless, tackling an officer alongside his wife, Maria Grisanti, outside their home in Buffalo, New York, on 23 June.
The altercation between the couple and the officer took place amid a dispute with neighbours, WKBW reported, but led to no charges being filed.
Mr Grisanti could be heard telling an officer that he was friends with Buffalo mayor Byron Brown, and that both his son-in-law and daughter are officers themselves, in an apparent plea as he was arrested.
His wife, moments before, could be heard shouting at neighbours as police tried to speak with them about the dispute.
“Ma’am, if you don’t stop yelling, this is gonna be a problem for you,” the Buffalo police officer says in the video, which WKBW obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
“I don’t care,” Ms Grisanti called back, which led to the officer’s move to arrest her with her handcuffs.
At that point, the shirtless justice can be seen shouting at the officer as he comes up from behind and shoves him.
Another officer at the scene then grabs Mr Grisanti by the arm, and says: “Keep your hands off of a cop.”
He responds: “You better get off my f***ing wife. My daughter and my son are both Buffalo police officers…I’ll call them right now.”
The footage concludes after the former Senator rants about his relations to a police commissioner and finally, the city’s mayor, who said in a statement that he would not intervene in the police department’s investigation.
Buffalo Police spokesman captain Jeff Rinaldo said afterwards that Mr Grisanti had not been charged because he "didn’t tackle anyone. He didn’t punch him. He gave him like a shoulder shove", WKBW reported.
"That was their [the officers'] discretion not to charge him for the push."
Mr Grisanti, a Republican, was nominated to the Court of Claims by governor Andrew Cuomo in 2015, having lost his Senate seat in a 2014 primary.
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