All charges were dropped yesterday against a disabled truck driver whose severe beating at the hands of a baton-swinging cop on the Lower East Side was caught on video.
"I feel beautiful," said Michael Cephus, 47, as he left Manhattan criminal court talking with his lawyer on the phone about suing for malicious prosecution.
He sustained a cracked knee cap and multiple bruises last July 4, when Officer Maurice Harrington hit him 10 times with the metal baton on Delancey Street, the video shows.
Cephus, accused of assaulting the cop, had faced up to 15 years in prison. Harrington, under investigation, is on modified, no-gun work status, officials said.
"Without that video, it would have been a whole different story," Cephus said, thanking the two anonymous bystanders who slipped the film to his friend - before they, too, were arrested for disorderly conduct.
"We'd really like to talk to them," said Cephus' lawyer, Steven Orlow.
True and I'd add that years ago this cop would be a pariah. His life would be made miserable by his peers and supervisors. Today, they look the other way.