On May 29, 2024, Ivin Harper was just going about his business when a cop pulled him over. He got out of his vehicle and ran, and he had valid reasons to. You see, Ivin like a lot of black people do not trust cops, and many of them like Ivin had valid reasons not to. This very decorated cop – Lieutenant Sean Kane, arrested Ivin in 2023 saying his protein powder was cocaine – he was proven wrong and Ivin set free from jail. Now, 1 year later he arrested this same man Ivin Harper for drug possession, and his own body cam footage showed him planting the drugs he arrested Ivin for. Now Ivin is set free again – after losing his job and everything good he had going for himself, and this cop goes on with his job after a brief suspension. Is this justice?
Hear Ivin’s frustration as he speaks directly to the judge, pleading with her to help stop what happened to him from happening again, or happening to anyone else who looks like him.
The Full Story:
This past spring, Ivin made a report to police in Mount Vernon, New York that a relative had taken his Cadillac Escalade without his permission. He later got his SUV back, but the car theft alert was not removed and was still active, and that caused New Rochelle police to approach the car on Main Street outside the Bracey Houses on May 29 2024.
Officer Sean Kane was that cop and after radioing it in, he was told by the dispatchers not to approach the vehicle as the alert was canceled. However, he got out of his car and began to approach Ivin’s car, and Ivin got out and ran. Officer Sean Kane then chased Ivin for a while before going back to his car and retrieving a small bag of drugs, then began riding in his car looking for Ivin. He then pulls up to Bracey Houses where Ivin lives, pressing his body cam as the audio came on. He apparently thought he was turning on his body cam but was unaware his body cam was already on and caught everything. He then exits his car, walks up to a minivan parked near the staircase between the lots and reaches under the front driver’s side tire and appears to retrieve something. He then walks back to his car and radio in that felony drug charges are in order for Ivin Harper.
Ivin had left the area after the chase but the police kept his Cadillac. And he later returned and went to the police headquarters on July 10th, at which point he was arrested on felony charges of third- and fifth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, with police alleging that crack and cocaine were found. The same drugs that officer Sean Kane planted as shown by his own body cam he thought was turned off.
The criminal complaint by Officer Maria Vasquez accuses Ivin of tossing a plastic bag under a parked car and that officer Sean Kane then retrieved it. In a separate report, she wrote specifically that officer Sean Kane saw Ivin toss the bag, but the body cam footage suggests that when Ivin would have passed that minivan officer Sean Kane was still in the lower lot and wouldn’t have been able to see him toss anything.
Within days of his arrest and before his lawyer was provided the body cam footage, Ivin filed a complaint with New Rochelle police alleging the drugs had been planted. Officials had watched officer Sean Kane’s body cam video footage, including the foot chase and his subsequent discovery of the drugs, but it was not until two weeks after Ivin’s complaint that officer Sean Kane was suspended and the matter referred to the DA’s Office, with an emphasis on reviewing the footage.
After reviewing the body cam footage and seeing officer Sean Kane planting the drugs, the District Attorney’s office requested that City Court Judge Eileen Songar McCarthy dismissed the case. Officer Sean Kane is suspended pending further investigation, but I hope he will not be allowed back at work to do “business as usual” which is falsely arresting innocent citizens.
It is important to note that before Ivin spoke in court, there was no specific reference to what officer Sean Kane had done.
Assistant District Attorney Craig Ascher – who wanted to reduce Ivin’s false felony drug charges to misdemeanor instead of dismissing the charges completely – simply said the dismissal was in the interest of justice. And Legal Aid lawyer Sydney Stanley merely said there were “allegations of very serious police misconduct” that justified the dismissal.
She later told Judge McCarthy, “The right outcome was reached but there are still real human costs. This is not harmless that I have a person standing to my left whose life was negatively affected by the bringing of criminal charges….Even though this case is dismissed the ramifications can’t be dismissed or taken back.”
45 year old Ivin Harper was a celebrity fitness trainer and an aspiring actor with his first role in an Amazon Prime 4-part movie series called “Shadows” which he was cut from as a result of this false arrest.
Now will the judge, prosecutor, district attorney’s office or someone in high authority reach out to the people in charge at this man’s job and let them know what really happened so he could get his job back!? Though this judge seemed so unphased after this man just poured out his valid frustrations to her.
This happened to this same man twice by the same cop – last year when he took his protein powder from his car and kept it for two days before turning it over to be tested causing that case to be dismissed after cocaine was mysteriously found in it. And again this year with this drug planting case. Why didn’t anyone reach out to this man’s job then to inform them he was not in the wrong – the cop was!?
Reaching out on his behalf would be a step in the right direction of righting these wrongs even if it’s too late for him to get his job back and continue where he left off!
And will this cop be charged? He wasn’t charged the first time so he obviously won’t be charged this time – just a slap on the wrist and he’ll be back to do the same thing again.
Ok, so what can this man do to prevent this happening again? Can he sue the cop?
I’m so frustrated just from watching this, can’t imagine how he go forward from here.
Setting him free is not justice, restoring to him what was taken away – is.
What can be learned from this?
I think what can be learned is that without accountability, nothing changes. And when injustice is continued by the government, the society becomes a less safe and less livable place.
Think about it! If we keep locking away good law-abiding people and leaving the criminals out here, what’s going to happen to society?
Do share your thoughts.
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