Judge Clears NYPD Detectives Accused Of Beating Postal Worker

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A judge cleared two NYPD officers accusing of brutally assaulting a postal worker in 2015.

Detectives Angelo Pampena, 32, and Robert Carbone, 30, had been charged with assaulting  Karim Baker in the Oct. 21, 2015 incident on 96th Street in Corona, Queens, according to the Queens District Attorney's office.

A judge acquitted both officers in a bench trial.

According to the indictment issued against the officers last year, Baker was getting into his car when he was approached by two detectives driving an unmarked 2013 Nissan Altima. The detectives then demanded that Baker show them his ID, before the alleged assault.

The indictment claimed Pampena and Carbone punched and kicked Baker multiple times before dragging him out into the street. Baker was taken to NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst and was later charged with disorderly conduct.

Baker had said he felt police were out to get him after he happened to give directions to cop killer Ismaaiyl Brinsley nearly a year before the alleged beating.

Baker said in December 2014, Brinsley – a total stranger – approached him asking for directions to the Marcy Houses development in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. It happened just before Brinsley went on to kill NYPD detectives Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu at that location.

Pampena and Carbone each could have faced up to seven years in prison if they had been convicted.

(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)