A New York City woman said she was arrested for calling 311, the city's information and resource hotline, too many times to complain about conditions in her building.
The New York Daily News spoke with the 67-year-old woman, Arles Cepeda, who said police showed up at her Bronx apartment in 2012 and arrested her after she called the hotline 44 times.
Though nothing ever came of the arrest, the Castile Hill Houses resident plans on filing a lawsuit Friday against the New York Police Department, claiming her First Amendment rights were violated.
Cepeda's troubles began after she moved into the New York City Housing Authority run building in November 2011. Disturbed by suspected drug dealing, she complained to the building's management.
But when that didn't work the retired medical secretary resorted to calling 311, where residents can report issues to the city government.
"I kept calling, but no one ever did anything," Cepeda told the Daily News.
Cepeda continued to call, sometimes about noise in the hallway and broken equipment, but mostly about drug activity. She called 911 twice. Police showed up on occasion but the drug dealing continued, she told the newspaper.
By December 2012, after calling the hotline 44 times, NYPD detective Theodore Stefatos showed up at her apartment with two other detectives and notified the widowed mother she was under arrest. He told her they found no evidence of illegal drug activity in the building, she said.
Police cuffed Cepeda and hauled her to a station house. She was charged with misdemeanor offering a false instrument for filing, slapped with a desk appearance ticket and sent on her way.
Before she left, Cepeda said Stefatos gave her a warning.
"'If you continue calling, "I'm gonna take you to the pysch unit at Jacobi Hospital,' " the officer said, Cepeda told the newspaper. "He was very cruel to me."
Cepeda showed up for her scheduled court date but found there was no record of her case being filed. Her lawyer, Samuel Cohen, told the Daily News the police probably never filed the required paper work with the district attorney's office.
The plaintiff is seeking an undisclosed monetary amount. The NYPD declined to give the newspaper comment.
Stefatos also declined a request seeking comment.
