A New York City police officer patrolling the West Village repeatedly punched an emotionally disturbed man in the face, breaking his nose, according to prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney’s office who are seeking to hold him criminally accountable. The officer, Juan Perez, was arraigned on Wednesday in New York State Supreme Court, and charged with third-degree assault for the Nov. 10, 2021, encounter. He pleaded not guilty. Over the years, prosecutors in Manhattan have sometimes pursued charges against police officers for actions taken while on duty, but most instances of alleged police misconduct have been looked upon as possible violations of departmental rules rather than as crimes. Alvin L. Bragg, who was elected as district attorney in 2021, has made police accountability a focus of his tenure.

Manhattan prosecutors have charged an NYPD officer with assault, saying he was unjustified in 2021 when he punched a man six times who was intoxicated and “in the throes of a serious psychiatric crisis” according to court papers. Officer Juan Perez, 42, of Brooklyn, is next scheduled to appear in court Aug. 2, a DA spokesman said. Spokespeople for the NYPD and the Police Benevolent Association could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday. Perez is currently assigned to the department’s Fleet Services Section, according to police records. According to court papers, Perez and his partner were on their way to a call on Nov. 10, 2021 when they came upon a “standoff” between two men and a third man on MacDougal Street in the West Village.

An NYPD cop who punched an erratically behaving man unconscious in the West Village has been charged with assault, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said Wednesday. The third-degree charge against Officer Juan Perez came as elected officials have been debating how cops and the public should handle encounters with the mentally ill in the wake of the subway death of Jordan Neely. Perez, 42, punched Borim Husenaj in the face six times in the November 2021 incident, breaking his nose and knocking him unconscious, according to prosecutors. “The defendant’s assault caused the victim to suffer substantial pain,” Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg said in a statement. “Police officers are often put in challenging situations, but they must use their training appropriately and treat the residents of New York City with respect.”

A New York City police officer seen on bystander video repeatedly punching a man in the face, leaving him unconscious with a broken nose in 2021, has been indicted on a misdemeanor assault charge, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced Wednesday.