NYPD cop punished for wearing Trump patch sues to overturn loss of 40-day pay

An NYPD cop who was punished for wearing a “Trump Make Enforcement Great Again 2020” patch while on duty is asking a judge to waive her penalty of 40 days of lost pay, alleging she didn’t get a fair domestic trial, new court documents Show.

Sergeant Dana Martillo has been suspended for 10 days and put on 30 days leave after a video surfaced of her wearing a “politically oriented patch” during a Black Lives Matter protest outside a police station in Fort City. Green February 5, 2021

The patch featured the Marvel Comics character The Punisher with former President Donald Trump’s signature hairdo.

Martillo, who has been with the police since 2008, also wore a second Punisher skull patch that is popular with a far-right group called the Three Percent.

In an administrative court, Martillo was found guilty on all four charges she faced, including wearing unauthorized patches and expressing personal political opinions in the line of duty.

But Martillo accused the investigation against her of being “highly biased and politically motivated” and said the allegations and the final ruling at trial were “completely fabricated and based on false facts,” according to her Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit filed by Tuesday.

The lawsuit states that Martillo never expected “the level of dishonesty, political bias and bad faith that would so infect this entire administrative disciplinary process because of the total control that the mayor, as head, has over the New York City Police Department and the ‘Kangaroo Court’ in which [she] was forced to defend herself on these trumped-up charges (pardon the pun).”

The reasons listed in the document as to why the trial was unfair include: that the judge who supervised him was biased; the only witness against her allegedly lied; and she was unfairly banned from presenting the testimony of an expert on a polygraph, which would confirm the truth of her testimony.

Martillo also claims that by wearing the patch, she was not really representing a candidate or president, but rather a civilian, since Trump was not in office and did not call for re-election on the day of the protest. The lawsuit includes a photograph of Trump visiting the 17th Precinct around the time he was a civilian.

She claims her punishment was excessive and “so disproportionate to the offense that it shocks the sense of justice,” court documents say.

Following the release of Martillo’s video, then Police Commissioner Dermot Shea tweeted“Members of the NYPD must remain apolitical.”

A spokesman for the city’s legal department and a spokesman for the NYPD said they would review the case.

Additional report by Craig McCarthy