NEW YORK - The Mount Kisco police officer facing criminal charges in
the death of a homeless Guatemalan immigrant was named in a police
brutality case involving two 14-year-olds during an incident at a
Bronx school in 2005.

New York City paid the teenagers $40,000 to settle the federal lawsuit
filed last year against George Bubaris and 10 other NYPD officers and
supervisors, according to court records.

The lawsuit accused police from the 49th Precinct in the Bronx of
kicking 14-year-old Lance Velez, then throwing him into a police van
before turning pepper spray on him, as the cops broke up a fight
between middle school girls outside F.D. Whalen Junior High School in
the Morris Park neighborhood on April 4, 2005. Another 14-year-old,
Fabian Parker, charged that he was roughed up and pepper-sprayed after
complaining about police tactics. No charges were filed against the
youths, their lawyer said.

The lawsuit accused some cops of participating in the alleged attack
and others of doing nothing to stop it. But it does not say what role
each officer, including Bubaris, was accused of playing.

"My clients really couldn't say from memory who did what. There was a
lot going on," said Michael Hueston, the lawyer who represented the
youths in the case. "Either way, it was a pretty brutal attack."

In court papers, New York City denied the police did anything wrong.
Hueston said the city's Civilian Complaint Review Board cleared the
cops of any wrongdoing. A city lawyer who represented the police in
the case did not return calls seeking comment.

Bubaris' lawyer in the Mount Kisco case, Edward Hayes, said Bubaris
was only vaguely aware of the lawsuit and denied any wrongdoing. He
pointed to the relatively low settlement figure as indicative of the
case's value.

*this Hayes shyster has to be the studiest guy I have ever heard. He's
really stupid, his client and the other 2 Mt. Kisco policeboys will
hang haha

"The city regularly settles these cases for their nuisance value and
that's what happened here," he said.

Bubaris was indicted last week by a Westchester County grand jury on
charges of second-degree manslaughter, official misconduct, and
unlawful imprisonment in the death of Rene Javier Perez, a homeless 42-
year-old man who was found dying by the the side of a road in Bedford
on April 28.

Bubaris was one of three Mount Kisco officers who responded to a
drunken 911 call for assistance by Perez from a village laundromat
that night. Bubaris told police headquarters that it was not a police
matter. The two other officers, Edward Dwyer and Lt. Edward Dunigan,
went on another call. Forty minutes later, Perez was found unconscious
on a desolate stretch of Byram Lake Road in Bedford four miles away.

He died the next morning at Westchester Medical Center. The medical
examiner's office said Perez died from internal bleeding and ruled the
death a homicide.

Bubaris, 30, has pleaded not guilty and is free on bail. Bubaris, who
lives in South Salem, joined the Mount Kisco Police Department in
August 2006 after several years as a police officer in New York City.

In the NYPD case, Hueston said he did not know if Bubaris was alleged
to have physically harmed the two youths or whether he was merely one
of the officers on the scene.

"He doesn't stand out as a main actor," he said. "But it's hard to say
because there were several officers there."

Velez claimed he offered no resistance as police kicked him in the
head, struck him in the throat and threw him into parked vehicles.
Parker said he was thrown into a fence, choked, and placed in a
headlock after he complained about the cops' actions.

Velez and Parker said they were handcuffed and sitting in a police van
when they were pepper-sprayed.

"Someone took pepper spray and sprayed it inside the van to make them
shut up," Hueston said.

The case was settled in January, with the city paying $15,000 to
Parker and $25,000 to Velez.

Reach Timothy O'Connor at tpoconnor@lohud.com or 914-694-3523.