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NYC Crime
NYPD cop fired by commissioner after alleged beating of
girlfriend, boasting he was invincible
By Rocco Parascandola
Police Bureau Chief • Oct 24, 2022 at 5:37 pm
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Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell has fired a cop accused of beating his girlfriend and 6-3
claiming he’s untouchable, according to NYPD documents. 3m
“[I’m] a police officer,” Officer Jose Joseph told his partner after attacking her, according to New York
her testimony. “Nothing’s going to happen.” Subway horror: man, 20,
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In fact, Joseph was arrested and charged with strangulation that day, Dec. 1, 2019. train doors
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He was acquitted at his criminal trial, but Sewell fired Joseph on July 20, according to a
decision about the case recently posted online. Knicks
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NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)
During his administrative trial at One Police Plaza three months earlier, the girlfriend,
identified by a pseudonym, Annette, testified that as they got ready to drive home from a Bronx
bar at 7 a.m., the 15-year police veteran fell asleep behind the wheel before pulling out.
She hailed an Uber, she said, but he woke up and yelled at her for doing so and assaulted her.
He knocked the phone out of her hand, slapped her in the face and “choked me — it was both
hands,” Annette testified.
Joseph, who was assigned to a Transit command in Harlem at the time, then put her in a
headlock until she lost consciousness, she said.
When she woke up, Joseph had his arms wrapped around her upper body, Annette testified.
“Are you dead, motherf----r?” he asked before calming down and driving her home.
That’s when he made his boast about being invulnerable thanks to his status as a cop, Annette
said.
However, she called 911 when she got home and took pictures of her injuries — cuts on her
chin and lip, scratches on her face and marks on her neck. She was later treated at New York
Presbyterian Hospital.
In his testimony, Joseph downplayed their relationship, calling her one of several girlfriends he
had at the time. He said Annette was mad because while at the bar, she accused him of
spending more time with his friends and other women than with her.
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He said he was angry about the Uber call, adding that that was because she had done the same
thing previously, using his credit card without asking.
When she “got in my personal space,” as he put it, he swept his arm across her body to push
her back into her seat — but claimed he did not choke her.
Administrative Judge Paul Gamble said he believed Annette and blasted Joseph for his “brazen
mendacity.”
Joseph, he said, offered up a self-serving explanation and used “long-discredited tropes” such
as claiming to be “shocked” that she challenged him about his true feelings since he believed he
had made it clear they were not exclusive.
“Any member of service,” Gamble wrote, “who commits a violent assault on an intimate
partner loses the moral standing required to enforce the law against others.”
Joseph could not be reached for comment and his lawyer had no comment.
In 2015, Joseph was placed on dismissal probation for a year and docked 45 vacation days for
not identifying himself at the scene of a fight and for giving “misleading statements” to
investigators, documents show.
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