Actors File Suit Alleging NYPD Wrongly Arrested Them After Dispute With Racist, Homophobic Cabbie

I hate to say this because I do know being a cop is a difficult job. But everything about this disgusting story rings true to me.

The Daily News reports:

Two stage actors say cops made their taxi ride from hell with a racist, homophobic cabbie immeasurably worse by arresting them due to a dispute over the fare. Christina Sajous and Ethan Paulini say in their suit filed in Manhattan Federal Court they hailed a cab on Sept. 11 of last year at W. 13th St. and 7th Ave. after attending an Off Broadway show. The pair were bound for Harlem, but driver Gregory Adolph refused to take the West Side Highway, papers charge. When Sajous told the driver he had to follow the route they requested, documents claim he said "I don't have to do anything for a ni----." Paulini, shocked, said "what did you say?" Adolph allegedly replied: "Now the fa---- got something to say." The furious passengers got out at 96th St. and Central Park West and paid Adolph $20 for a $19.50 fare. But Adolph insisted they get back in the car and go to their destination because he wanted the full fare, according to papers. He said he didn’t want to pick up another passenger headed downtown from the “filthy ni---- neighborhood,” the suit claims. Paulini and Sajous said they would call the police, but they say Adolph didn't care. "Who would believe a ni---- and a fa----?" he allegedly said. They opted to take the subway and while waiting on a platform four officers intercepted them and asked they return to the street. Adolph, who could not be reached for comment, told the cops they had skipped the fare, according to the suit. So Paulini gave the cabbie another $20, saying “Here, if this makes you go away please take it,” the suit says. “Now I (have) paid it twice.” He then reached into his pocket to present cops with a receipt showing he’d already paid the fare when they left the car. But before he could pull out the piece of paper one of the officers said “Never put your hands in your pockets around a police officer,” documents claim. Paulini tried to explain himself, but a cop said “show it to the judge” and pushed him into a police cruiser, documents claim. The pair’s attorney Douglas Grover said the case was an outrage. “This is really an egregious example of inappropriate police conduct,” he said. “This kind of thing shouldn't happen in the future.” Sajous, who was had a role in the Broadway production of “Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark,” was also thrown in cuffs. "So [the driver] can insult us and we are the ones getting arrested?" Sajous pleaded in the back of a police cruiser, papers say. "Yup," a cop replied. Charges of resisting arrest and skipping the fare were tossed in November and December of last year, Grover said. Paulini and Sajous seek damages to be determined at trial. Adolph has a clean driving record, according to the Taxi and Limousine Commission, which has never received a complaint about him. He got his cabbie license in 2011. "We’ll review the allegations and investigate the facts once we are served,” a Law Department spokesman said.