A Brooklyn resident has filed a lawsuit against the City of New York and numerous police officers, alleging multiple civil rights violations. On January 5, 2026, Micah Mitchell submitted a complaint in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York against the City of New York and several officers from the NYPD. The lawsuit accuses these officers of false arrest, excessive force, malicious prosecution, and other misconduct stemming from two separate incidents.
According to the complaint filed by Mitchell's attorney, Philip Akakwam, the first incident occurred on January 5, 2023. On that day, Mitchell was allegedly arrested without cause by a group of NYPD officers at 420 Mother Gaston Avenue in Brooklyn. The complaint states that these officers handcuffed Mitchell tightly enough to cause pain and numbness before conducting an illegal search that yielded no contraband. Despite this, Mitchell was detained at the precinct for an extended period and was forced to appear in court on charges that were never formally filed. A similar sequence of events reportedly took place on October 21, 2023. In this second incident, another group of NYPD officers arrested Mitchell without cause at the same location and charged him with various weapons offenses. Again, no contraband was found during searches conducted both at the scene and later at the precinct.
Mitchell claims that these actions violated his rights under multiple amendments to the U.S. Constitution as well as federal law under Title 42 U.S.C. § 1983. He is seeking compensatory and punitive damages for what he describes as unlawful arrests and detentions that caused him emotional distress, loss of liberty, financial losses, and damage to his reputation. Additionally, he alleges that these incidents are part of a broader pattern of misconduct by NYPD officers who routinely target individuals from racial or ethnic minority groups.
The lawsuit further accuses the City of New York of failing to properly train or supervise its police officers, thereby enabling such misconduct to occur repeatedly. Citing previous lawsuits against the city for similar allegations involving racial profiling and unlawful stop-and-frisk practices, Mitchell argues that there has been no meaningful attempt by city officials to address these issues.
In terms of legal representation and case details: Philip Akakwam serves as Mitchell's attorney; there is no mention yet of who will represent the defendants in court proceedings scheduled under Case ID: 1:26-cv-00056 before judges whose names have not been disclosed in available documents thus far.
Source: 126cv00056_Mitchell_v_The_City_of_New_York_Complaint_Eastern_District_New_York.pdf