Action alleges “a culture rewarding officers for unconstitutional conduct.”

Ivin Harper, who was arrested on false drug charges after then-NRPD Lt. Sean Kane planted drugs under his car in 2024, has sued the City of New Rochelle and others for denial of his civil and constitutional rights.  

Frame from NRPD Lt. Sean Kane’s body camera showing him handling a baggie of drugs in his patrol car

The complaint, filed in federal court on July 13, alleges that the attempt to frame Harper occurred because “the City of New Rochelle, through its police department, perpetuated a culture of rewarding officers for their improper, illegal, and unconstitutional conduct.”  The full complaint can be read here.  

The action names the City of New Rochelle, Kane, two other police officers, and a police informant as defendants.  It seeks monetary damages to compensate Harper for “false imprisonment, psychological and emotional distress, and other financial loss” and punitive damages “to deter such intentional or reckless deviations from well-settled constitutional law” in the future.

The complaint also seeks “injunctive relief,” which could presumably include court-ordered reforms to NRPD policies and procedures, such as requirements for improved training or greater disciplinary consequences for official misconduct in the future.

Harper is represented in the action by two nationally-recognized civil rights law firms that, among other important victories, successfully sued to overturn New York City’s notorious stop-and-frisk policy and obtained damages for members of the Central Park Five, who were exonerated after years of incarceration based on confessions coerced by police when they were teenagers. 

Harper’s complaint provides a detailed account of the events of May 29, 2024, when Kane recorded himself planting drugs under Harper’s car and then had Harper arrested on felony drug charges (which were later dismissed).  According to the complaint, during the NRPD’s internal investigation of the incident, Kane admitted that an informant gave him the bag of drugs and that he lied about seeing Harper throw the drugs under the car.

Ivin Harper at court hearing where fabricated charges were dismissed (Credit: Frank Becerra, Jr., The Journal News)

The complaint also reviews numerous recent incidents of serious misconduct by NRPD officers that did not lead to meaningful and timely discipline by NRPD leadership but rather to promotions and commendations.

The filing recounts the June 2020 killing of Kamal Flowers by Officer Alec McKenna, who conducted an unexplained pursuit of the car in which Flowers was riding, ending on a dark street where McKenna fatally shot him.  The complaint describes McKenna’s lengthy record of misconduct allegations, including repeated pretextual and improperly documented traffic stops and inaccurate narratives, which resulted in no significant disciplinary action.  After killing Flowers, according to the complaint, McKenna faced no criminal or disciplinary consequences and continues as an NRPD officer assigned to a Westchester County crime center in Valhalla, NY. According to the complaint, McKenna received multiple NRPD commendation awards following the Flowers shooting.

The complaint also addresses the July 2023 fatal shooting of Jarrell Garris by NRPD Detective Steven Conn, who received three official commendations the following year, and the 2021 beating of Malik Fogg by Detective Michael Vaccaro.  According to the complaint, Vaccaro had a decade-long pattern of sustained misconduct, including dishonesty, failure to follow orders, repeated failures to appear for trials, mishandling of property, and making false statements, to which the NRPD responded with minor discipline and multiple unit citations and commendation awards.  Vaccaro was fired in 2023.

Jarrell Garris before he was fatally shot by NRPD Detective Steven Conn in July 2023

In all these cases, the victims were Black and the offending officers were white.

The complaint also alleges that long before the incident with Harper in 2024, the city and the police commissioner “had actual knowledge that … Kane had repeatedly engaged in sustained misconduct, including failures to appear for required proceedings, unsafe operation of police vehicles, failures to file required charges, mishandling and improper disposal of evidence, and conduct detrimental to the good order,” and that “despite these sustained violations, the City imposed minimal discipline, most often consisting of the loss of a few leave days, and permitted Kane to remain in active patrol and later promoted him to supervisory rank.”

According to the complaint, “the message conveyed by the City’s repeated pattern of minimal discipline, false public narratives, and continued retention of officers with documented records of serious misconduct was unmistakable: officers who engaged in unconstitutional conduct would be protected by NRPD rather than punished or terminated.”

The complaint continues: “Defendant Kane acted against this institutional backdrop. His decision to plant narcotics on Plaintiff and to coordinate with a civilian and fellow officers to fabricate evidence was not an aberration. It was the foreseeable product of a departmental culture that had consistently communicated to its officers that misconduct would be tolerated, covered up, and ultimately excused. 

“Kane had every reason to believe, based on the City’s demonstrated response to comparable misconduct by other officers, that he would face no meaningful consequences even if his conduct were discovered.”

“And in fact, he was right. Even though he was caught on video tape planting drugs on an innocent person, Kane was not arrested, not criminally prosecuted, and not terminated. Instead he was suspended with pay for a year and then he was demoted and allowed to resign, keeping his pension and his record largely intact, and subsequently obtained employment at another law enforcement agency.”

While Kane was under internal investigation, he filed for accidental disability retirement that would have provided him a tax-free pension worth three-quarters of his final salary. In March 2026, Kane was demoted to Police Officer and was allowed to resign.  He withdrew his retirement application only after his demotion was finalized and before any public hearing could create a record of the proceeding, including his admission that he had falsified evidence.  After leaving the NRPD, he was hired by the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office.