The trial of a former NYPD officer accused of assaulting two men inside Manhattan Central Booking is coming to an end, and the jury will soon have to weigh a complex legal question: When does a police officer’s use of force become a crime?

The case they’ll weigh is that of former NYPD officer Josue Torres, who is charged with two counts of assault in Manhattan Supreme Court. Over the past week, the jurors have viewed videos of Torres punching and kneeing a man he and other officers attempted to restrain inside a cell at Manhattan Central Booking, the holding cell area below the courthouse that is staffed by unarmed NYPD officers.

Another video shows Torres twisting the hand of a different detainee whose wrists were cuffed and whose feet were shackled. The man suffered a broken thumb during the ordeal, prosecutors have said.

For two days this week, prosecutors and Torres’ defense attorney have been driving at very different theories of what those videos show. For Assistant District Attorney Karl Mulloney, the videos show excessive force by an officer that veered into criminal assaults. For defense attorney Patrick Brackley, the same footage shows Torres using tactics consistent with how NYPD officers are trained. In their deliberations, the jury will weigh the two misdemeanor counts, but also the larger question of when use of force by a police officer goes too far.

“The evidence is going to show you that in each of these incidents, the defendant intentionally inflicted injury on men under his care and supervision,” Mulloney told jurors in his opening statement.

Brackley countered in his own: “An injury in and of itself doesn’t mean excessive force.”

Torres was fired from the NYPD in 2023, a department spokesperson said.

The incidents

The prosecution’s relatively brief case relied on the video evidence and testimony by two police officers and one of the victims, who guided jurors through their recollection of the incidents.

In the first instance, Joseph Myers told jurors he was detained while awaiting arraignment in a group holding cell in central booking on May 3, 2022 for violating a court order. Video played in court shows Myers and three other detainees in the garbage-littered cell. Myers, who is Muslim, said it was the Eid holiday and he was trying to break his fast, but couldn’t eat the cheese sandwiches or drink the milk provided because he’s lactose intolerant.

In the group cell, Myers was standing on a bench asking police officers for a plate of food, according to video footage and his testimony.

The sergeant on duty at the time, Raymond Marrero, testified he recalled Myers being “loud and disruptive” and made the decision to move him to a separate cell alone.

Video then shows officers pull Myers out of the group area and physically toss him into the separate cell. Seconds later, six officers, including Torres, walked into that cell because they wanted to handcuff him, Marrero testified.

Myers told jurors he immediately thought the officers were going to “get physical” because he saw a number of them put on black and blue gloves. As they approached him, Myers backed away toward a corner in the cell and raised his hands, the video shows.

As the officers restrained Myers, Torres shoved him, punched him in the face and kneed him, according to the video.

After the blows, Myers testified he recalled “a warm feeling in my mouth just oozing out” and said he began spitting blood in the cell after being placed in handcuffs.

During cross examination, Brackley repeatedly asked Myers if he spit at Torres during the incident. He ultimately told the jury he had.

Through his questioning, Brackley also cast doubt on the extent of Myers’ injuries.

The second incident happened nearly two months later, when a man named Jihad Dantzler was detained at Central Booking on June 28, 2022. Videos played to the jury show Dantzler, who prosecutors said was experiencing a mental health episode, climbing a structure in a cell and slamming his head against the ceiling in an attempt to hurt himself.

Officer Clifford Barker testified that officers decided to get Dantzler a psychiatric evaluation at Bellevue Hospital, and as two officers walked him out of Central Booking, he kicked over a plastic bin and lay face-down on the floor while he was handcuffed and shackled, according to video played in court.

Several other officers, including Torres, then walk up and surround Dantzler as he was on the ground, according to the video. Torres then twisted Dantzler’s thumb and wrist, according to video of the incident. Barker, who was standing a few feet away as this happened, told jurors that Dantzler screamed in pain and kicked his legs as this happened.

Dantzler was later treated for a fractured thumb and his wrist and hand were put in a cast, prosecutors said.

Dantzler did not testify at the trial. On Wednesday, correction officers drove him from Rikers Island to the courthouse to take the witness stand, but he backed out despite prosecutors pushing for his testimony, according to statements made by the parties in open court.

The defense

Torres’ lawyers did not challenge the idea that he used force in both incidents. But they dispute that his actions were a crime.

“Our position is that his use of force was justified, and unfortunately in his line of work, sometimes injuries result upon the use of force. But our position is that injury in and of itself is not evidence of an intentional assault,” said David Colgan, who is co-counsel to Brackley.

The defense’s case consisted of a single expert witness: Leonardo Pino, a retired NYPD detective who previously trained recruits in the use of physical force at the police academy. Among the cases Pino has testified in is the grand jury investigation into the 2014 killing of Eric Garner by an NYPD officer, he said. An NYPD officer killed Garner by placing him in a fatal chokehold after an encounter on Staten Island. A grand jury later declined to indict the officer.

On the stand, Pino testified NYPD officers are trained in what are called “hard tactics” that include “strikes” – or punches – and other blows, including kneeing someone, that can be used if someone is resisting.

During cross-examination, Mulloney repeatedly pressed Pino on whether using those hard tactics should be done only if they are reasonable and necessary. Mulloney asked if the number of officers who respond to a situation matters in determining how much use of force is necessary.

“Could be, yes,” Pino said.

He also testified that officers are trained to use what’s called pain compliance, which can include wrist locks and a thumb lock.

Pino told jurors that police officers can apply these to put someone in handcuffs, but certain wrist locks can also be used when someone is already cuffed.

The techniques can potentially injure someone, he said, but officers are taught not to worry about it.

But Pino acknowledged that officers are not supposed to use those techniques if a person is not resisting.