He was punched by a cop at a rowdy Yonkers meeting. Now he's been acquitted

WHITE PLAINS — He made his name in Yonkers as a friend to the police: a former gang member who prodded the force to improve community relations by having officers greet residents with friendly handshakes.

But Hector Santiago, the activist who initiated the "Stop and Shake" program in 2015, found himself on the wrong side of his allies in blue one night in November. Pulled by officers from the Yonkers City Council chambers during a rowdy meeting, Santiago — one arm in a sling after recent shoulder surgery — brushed away a cop's hand on his arm and was punched in the face in return, then tackled and handcuffed. The incident was caught on multiple videos, including a city's official recording of the meeting and a hallway surveillance camera recording.

Thus began an eight-month court ordeal for Santiago that finally ended on Tuesday.

It ended with acquittal. White Plains Judge John Collins Jr. delivered the verdict at the end of a three-day trial, declaring the 35-year-old father of three not guilty of disorderly conduct — the sole, low-level violation Santiago still faced after other charges against him crumbled.

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Santiago beamed outside the courtroom afterward, relieved to be vindicated and done with the first part of his legal battle. In his telling, the two-minute encounter and arrest extended his surgery recovery by two months and cost him his job, more than 20 trips to court and $4,500 in initial legal fees.

"It just dragged out for so long," he said.

Next up was his impending federal lawsuit against the police department.

"On to the next fight, but now with my head high," Santiago said.

A Yonkers police spokesman later said the department stood by the actions its officers took on Nov. 22 to "maintain law and order at a public gathering."

"We respect the ruling of the courts in this matter," Detective Sgt. Frank DiDomizio told The Journal News/lohud in an emailed statement. "However, the internal investigation into this incident revealed no wrongdoing on behalf of our Officers."

What caused the ruckus at the Yonkers City Council meeting?

The incident was a spinoff from a highly charged political issue: a proposal to extend term limits in Yonkers so Mayor Mike Spano could run for a fourth term. The council had already pushed the limit to three terms from two in 2018 and was ready to extend it again, causing a heated split among residents.

That was the topic at hand when Santiago and others packed the chambers to state their views and watch the vote. The mood was boisterous. Audience members cheered, booed and traded chants. Council members took turns explaining how they intended to vote.

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The noise got louder as a councilwoman lashed out her critics, prompting shouts from the audience. Santiago, standing in the crowd, can be seen on video cupping his mouth with his one free hand and saying something. "Stop talking and vote," a witness testified on Tuesday that Santiago said, his voice barely raised.

On the recording, Detective Russell Kilgore is seen striding across the room, straight to Santiago. He speaks to Santiago, then starts to push him toward the door. Two plain-clothes cops immediately join in, pushing Santiago through the crowd. A brief tussle breaks out as a bystander intervenes.

Another camera captured what happened next in the hallway. Kilgore, who had been speaking there to the bystander, approaches Santiago and takes him by the arm. In seconds, Santiago flicks away Kilgore's hand, Kilgore decks him, and a scrum of officers converge and take Santiago to the floor.

What was Hector Santiago charged with?

Police initially planned to charge Santiago with the felony of assaulting an officer, according to his arrest report. But that was dropped from their charges when they brought him to court the next day, leaving two misdemeanors — obstructing governmental administration and resisting arrest — and the disorderly-conduct violation.

The case was moved to White Plains after all seven Yonkers judges recused themselves. And the Orange County District Attorney's Office was enlisted to prosecute it after Westchester County District Attorney Mimi Rocah also recused herself, since Santiago had worked on her 2020 election campaign.

Kilgore said in the arrest report that he removed Santiago from the chambers because he cursed and acted defiant after being asked to lower his voice. According to the detective's account, he punched Santiago in the face to "stop his actions" after Santiago hit him with his elbow and forearm, "forcefully jolting me back."

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Yonkers Police Commissioner Christopher Sapienza defended his officers' handling of the situation days later in a News12 TV interview, saying they showed restraint and tried to calm Santiago and others around him.

"There was a whole room full of people, many people voicing their opinions, but he was the one that got arrested," Sapienza said of Santiago. "He was the one that took it to the level to get arrested."

The two misdemeanors fizzled before the case even went to trial. On April 7, the Orange County prosecutor assigned the case replaced them with harassment, a violation akin to a speeding ticket. That was the offense Santiago allegedly committed by striking Kilgore.

The White Plains judge dismissed that charge on the second day of the trial. That left only disorderly conduct for Santiago's alleged disruption of the meeting.

What happened in court?

One final trial witness testified for a half-hour on Tuesday about what she saw and heard in the chambers before Santiago's arrest.

Eileen O'Connor, who said she was sitting in the audience in front of Santiago, told the court the meeting got raucous as Councilwoman Tasha Diaz spoke, with people already yelling back in anger when Santiago spoke up — "probably less loudly than others around him, including myself."

Judge Collins then grilled prosecutor Bryan Conway about how exactly Santiago disrupted the meeting: by calling out in a noisy room as others did the same, or by his conduct as police removed him?

Conway said it was the second part, arguing that Santiago defied police instructions and caused a spectacle during his removal that halted the proceedings.

Santiago's lawyer, Richard Ferrante, countered in his closing argument that police likely had no intent to arrest Santiago for that alleged disruption until after Kilgore "cold-cocked" him. Then they charged him as a way to justify the detective's own conduct.

"I think this whole incident got blown out of proportion when it got moved into the hallway," Ferrante said.

What happens next?

The council voted 4-3 that night to extend Spano's term limits, clearing the mayor for a fourth run. Spano won a three-way Democratic primary last month and faces Republican Councilman Anthony Merante in the general election in November. A court fight to undo the term-limit extension ended Monday when the state's highest court declined to hear the case.

Santiago plans to sue Yonkers and its police in federal court for damages. In a notice of claim given to the city to announce the pending case on Dec. 1, his attorneys accused the police of "falsely and maliciously" charging Santiago "to cover up for the Yonkers police officers’ misconduct and brutality."

Santiago, who serves on the Yonkers Human Rights Commission, says he lost his job as a digital navigator with Y-Zone — a Yonkers program that helps low-income residents get computers and internet service — after his police run-in because he missed so much work with doctor's appointments and court dates.

After his acquittal on Tuesday, he said remains committed to the "Stop and Shake" program and its mission, seeing his experience as evidence that more work is needed to improve how police and citizens interact.

"There's more good cops and good community members than bad on both sides," Santiago said. "It's about holding the wrongdoers accountable on both sides."

Chris McKenna covers government and politics for The Journal News and USA Today Network. Reach him at cmckenna@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Hector Santiago punched by cop at Yonkers meeting, now acquitted