Lawyer representing LI man in police beating subpoenaed to provide records to federal grand jury

The attorney for a Long Beach man whose 2021 alleged police beating was captured on body camera video has received a subpoena to provide records to a federal grand jury that is apparently investigating the matter, a court document shows.

Long Island-based civil rights attorney Frederick K. Brewington, who is representing Christopher Cruz in a lawsuit against Suffolk County and its police department in connection with the alleged beating, has been summoned to appear and to provide the records to the grand jury on Aug. 22, a copy of the subpoena states.

The subpoena directs Brewington to provide the grand jury with documents that are part of the civil case, including "all depositions, affidavits, and declarations ... along with all materials produced in discovery."

"It indicates to me that there's an opportunity for this to be looked at with fresh eyes," Brewington said in an interview Tuesday after disclosing the existence of the subpoena in court on Tuesday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin Reid, the chief of the Civil Rights Section that handles criminal cases, sent the subpoena, the document says.

John Marzulli, a spokesman for the federal prosecutors' office, declined to comment when asked about the subpoena Tuesday.

Suffolk County spokesman Michael Martino said Tuesday that the county has not received a subpoena in connection with the Cruz case.

Brewington and other attorneys representing Cruz filed a federal lawsuit in February 2022 alleging that Cruz was repeatedly punched and kicked while handcuffed on Feb. 24, 2021.

The complaint said police violated Cruz's civil rights and targeted him because he is Hispanic and that the assault was part of a long-standing pattern of discrimination against Latino communities by Suffolk officers.

Brewington disclosed the existence of the Aug. 8 subpoena to Magistrate Judge Arlene R. Lindsay during a Tuesday conference in the civil case to discuss possible sanctions against Suffolk County for what Brewington said was its failure to provide Cruz's defense with a 50-page police Internal Affairs file on the Cruz case during the discovery process.

"You're right, this created a wrinkle," Lindsay said, in response to Brewington's disclosure of the subpoena.

The judge ruled against levying any sanctions against the county for not providing the police Internal Affairs report.

"I'm not finding fault here," Lindsay said.

William Nolan, the attorney representing Officer Matthew Cameron, who was initially charged in Suffolk criminal court in connection with Cruz's beating before the indictment was dismissed, raised the specter of his client being a target of the federal grand jury investigation.

"He may, in fact, be a target of this investigation as well," Nolan said during the Tuesday conference, raising the possibiliyy that his client would assert his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination if he was a target of the federal probe.

"I'm very skeptical about the assertion of Fifth Amendment privilege," the judge told Nolan.

Nolan did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Kyle Wood, an attorney for Suffolk Officer William Bubeck, who is also named in the civil suit, also did not return a message Tuesday.

Cameron was the only police officer charged in connection with Cruz's arrest in Mount Sinai following a nine-month grand jury investigation by then-Suffolk District Attorney Tim Sini.

But a Suffolk judge later dismissed the indictment on a misdemeanor charge of second-degree offering a false instrument for filing, saying the evidence submitted to a grand jury in the case was "not legally sufficient."

Two officers were suspended and four others, including one supervisor, were placed on modified duty, officials said then.

Cruz had stolen a Jeep Grand Cherokee after participating in a treatment program at St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson and used the Jeep to ram a police car at a Coram gas station and then fled before crashing into a snowbank in Mount Sinai and ramming another police vehicle, police said then. Two officers were injured during the incident, police said.

The lawsuit alleges Cruz was attempting to leave the gas station when his vehicle was struck by a police car.

Cruz fled the scene but later surrendered and was pulled from his vehicle and handcuffed. He was then kicked, punched and pushed to the ground, according to the lawsuit. At least 15 officers, the lawsuit added, participated in the attack and failed to intervene. Many of the facts alleged in the lawsuit were captured on body camera video.

A 2021 Newsday investigation questioned the official police account of the incident. Criminal justice experts who reviewed surveillance video said it contradicted an officer's sworn accusation that Cruz intentionally rammed his police car while trying to flee.

Suffolk prosecutors in June 2021 dropped three of five charges filed against Cruz, telling a judge they could not prove Cruz was guilty of second-degree assault, third-degree criminal mischief and resisting arrest. Cruz pleaded guilty to petit larceny in September 2022 and was sentenced to time served.

By Nicole Fuller

nicole.fuller@newsday.com@NicoleFuller

Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.