Cop Who Tackled Tennis Pro James Blake Sues City, NYPD

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — An NYPD officer facing disciplinary action for tackling retired tennis pro James Blake in front of a Midtown Manhattan hotel in 2015 has filed a lawsuit against his accusers, the officer's lawyer told Patch.

Officer James Frascatore's lawsuit names Blake, New York City, the NYPD, the Civilian Complaint Review Board and HarperCollins Publishers — which published Blake's book "Ways of Grace: Stories of Activism, Adversity, and How Sports Can Bring Us Together" — as defendants, Frascatore's lawyer Peter Brill told Patch. The lawsuit was filed Monday afternoon in the Southern District of New York, Brill said.

The lawsuit accuses the various defendants of defamation, civil rights abuses and denying Frascatore due process, according to Brill. A claim based on racial discrimination was filed not because Frascatore was discriminated against for being white but because he was improperly labeled a racist, Brill said.

Watch: Officer Who Arrested James Blake Files Defamation Suit

The NYPD declined to comment on the upcoming litigation.

"We will review the complaint and decline further comment while Officer Frascatore's disciplinary proceeding and now this lawsuit are pending," a city Law Department spokesman told Patch.

In his first public comments since the 2015 arrest, Frascatore told the New York Post that tackling Blake was the right call given the information he was provided.

"I have a family to go home to. I’m on a crowded sidewalk, with a possibly armed suspect in the middle of 42nd Street," Frascatore told the Post. "You have to take control of the situation. I can’t just be pulling out my gun."

The officer has been placed on modified duty since NYPD surveillance video of the takedown was released in 2015. The video shows Blake, now 37, standing at the Grand Hyatt New York entrance, fiddling with his cellphone, when Frascatore approaches him and quickly throws him to the ground. Frascatore was in plain clothes at the time of the arrest.

NYPD officials said in 2015 that the tennis star had been mistaken for a man wanted in connection with an identity-theft ring. Then-NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton and Mayor Bill de Blasio personally apologized to Blake when the arrest was first publicized.

In June, Blake agreed not to sue the city. In exchange, a legal fellowship will be created in his name to strengthen the city's police watchdog agency, the Associated Press reported. The two-year fellowship will focus on helping people navigate the civilian complaint process and push for strong investigations into police misconduct, according to the report.

Photo courtesy NYPD