NYPD sergeant fired over shoplifting case at Macy’s in Yonkers
Yonkers NY April 24 2023 An NYPD sergeant who claimed she was falsely arrested for shoplifting at a Macy’s store in Yonkers was fired, the department said.
Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell signed off on the dismissal in January after a department disciplinary trial judge found Eva Peña guilty of “engaging in conduct prejudicial to the good order, efficiency or discipline of the department” as well as making false and misleading statements.
The decision, by Assistant Deputy Commissioner of Trials Josh Kleinman, was publicly released last week.
Peña was accused of stealing $359 worth of Guess and Tommy Hilfiger clothes from a Macy’s at the Cross County Shopping Center on Sept. 3, 2019.
The sergeant said she was targeted because she was Dominican, falsely arrested and attacked by an undercover store security guard who screamed “I hate cops!” during a clash in a dressing room.
But Kleinman in his findings said store video footage proves her claims were “unlikely, implausible and bizarre.”
“Video evidence portrays Peña smiling as she is leaving the dressing room and she shows no discomfort or paranoia, continuing to browse store products in the same manner as she did before,” Kleinman wrote. “Furthermore, when she is escorted by the undercover loss prevention agent to the asset protection office there is no indication of any animosity between them.”
The most damning evidence, Kleinman noted, was video footage from inside the Macy’s asset management office which shows security agents pulling the clothes out of Peña’s Luis Vuitton handbag.
“The tribunal finds Peña’s version of events to lack credibility and to be refuted by the preponderance of credible evidence,” Kleinman wrote.
In a lawsuit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court in October, Peña said she was a “loyal longtime customer” of the Yonkers Macy’s until the run-in with the guards. Although a store security guard followed her around the store and into changing room areas and bathrooms, no one ever saw her commit a crime, she claimed.
Macy’s Asset Protection Officer Samantha Newton-Henry admitted during Peña’s department trial last July that she never saw Peña take the clothing that was later found in the cop’s bag, court documents cite. Nor was the theft caught on video.
Peña has accused the store’s asset protection staff of framing her, trying to shake her down and forging her signature on the confession.
“They said, ‘We’re going to count how many items there are and multiply it by five. You pay us that amount, we’ll open up the door and go home, no one would ever find out.’ I said, ‘Do yourself a favor and call the cops,’” Peña told the Daily News following her NYPD disciplinary proceeding.
Both the federal lawsuit and her shoplifting case in Westchester Criminal Court are still pending.
The shoplifting case is expected to be dismissed at the next court date in August, her attorney Eric Sanders said Thursday.
“The department’s actions are shameful as there’s no credible evidence Peña stole anything,” said Sanders, who said there are documented cases in which Macy’s was accused of racial profiling. “Certainly, given Macy’s track record, she should’ve been given the benefit of the doubt.”
New York state investigators have accused Macy’s of racial profiling twice in the last two decades, Peña states in court papers with her lawsuit.
The attorney general’s office lodged one such accusation in 2005 after learning that more people of color were being stopped and accused of shoplifting than whites, Peña’s lawsuit states. Macy’s denied wrongdoing but signed an agreement “to resolve matters” stemming from the probe.
After another attorney general probe In 2014 alleged racial profiling at the Macy’s flagship store in Midtown, the company agreed to a $650,000 settlement, without admitting or denying the investigation’s findings.
Macy’s has repeatedly declined to comment on Peña’s suit.
Peña’s departmental trial got off to a rocky start when prosecutors nixed plans for an NYPD analyst to testify the sergeant’s signature on the shoplifting confession provided by the department store was legit.
The planned testimony was canceled after a subordinate claimed in a lawsuit that she reviewed the handwriting analysis and came to the conclusion the signature was a “possible” match. Her boss tried to bully her into saying it was a definitive match, part of a pattern of bullying in the NYPD’s questioned documents unit, the suit claims.
