Arrest me once, shame on me. Arrest me twice, you’ll get sued.
A Pleasant Valley man filed a lawsuit last week against the city for arresting him twice for a 1988 Bronx homicide.
Raed Ayyash was accused of murdering Hassan Abusalem in his apartment in 1988 by slicing his throat and shooting him in the chest. During the attack, the victim’s wife, Brunilda Toro-Abusalem was also shot while hiding under a bed but survived, according to court documents.
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Toro-Abusalem pointed the finger at Ayyash and detectives charged him with second-degree murder.
But cops failed to tell prosecutor Risa Sugarman they would arrest Ayyash, leading her to feel “slighted,†according to court documents.
Sugarman did not authorize Ayyash’s arrest, and he was a free man.
Abusalem’s murder was transferred to the NYPD’s cold case unit, and in 2007 Ayyash was arrested again and faced the same charges.
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But in Jan. 2012 Judge Troy Webber threw out the case, citing Ayyash’s right to a speedy trial.
“The fact that there was no follow-up on the case from 1988 to 2005 appears to the court to be the result of ‘sheer neglect,’†Webber wrote.
In his suit filed in Bronx Supreme Court, Ayyash claims he has suffered “emotional distress, anguish, anxiety ... and damage to his reputation and standing within his community†from the ordeal.
A spokeswoman for the city’s Law Department said it was reviewing the complaint.
Ayyash could not reached. His lawyer did not return a phone call.
sbrown@nydailynews.com
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