On April 20, 2021, Attorney Lauren P. Raysor announced that she is filing a lawsuit against the New York Police Department (NYPD) on behalf of her client, Andre Brown. Ms. Raysor claimed officers executed a “no-knock” warrant upon entering the premises and unlawfully arresting Mr. Brown.

On the morning of March 5, 2021, Mr. Brown, who was living in the basement apartment of his family’s house in Jamaica, Queens with his girlfriend, Deidre Covington, saw a group of NYPD officers — their faces and badges covered with dark cloth — pointing their guns at him. The officers broke down the front door and trashed the basement apartment. They made him and his girlfriend get dressed, cuffed Mr. Brown and pulled them into a police van without explanation. Meanwhile, another group of officers told Mr. Brown’s family, who were upstairs, not to move. None of the officers produced a warrant before entering the residence.

Mr. Brown spent 25 minutes in the van. A short while later, Ms. Covington was released. Mr. Brown was taken to the precinct, where he was ticketed for possession of marijuana. He spent 90 minutes in a jail cell after being fingerprinted and photographed. Five days later, the District Attorney’s Office determined the NYPD did not have a case against Mr. Brown and dropped the charge.

“I can’t understand, in light of Breonna Taylor’s murder, that the police are allowed to execute ‘no-knock’ warrants,” Ms. Raysor said. “Suspending our constitutional rights under the guise of fighting crime is morally wrong. What is worse is that a majority of these ‘no-knock’ warrants are executed in communities of color. We can’t wait until someone is killed to change the law. We have a chance to make changes now.”

For more information, call (914) 733-8080 or visit www.laurenpraysor.com.

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About Lauren P. Raysor
Lauren P. Raysor is an attorney concentrating in personal injury, civil rights, bankruptcy, matrimonial and family law. She has litigated numerous cases over the years, taking more than 35 cases to verdict and has argued before the Appellate Division in the case of Makeda Barnes Joseph v. Universal Music Group. She served as Corporation Counsel for the City of Mount Vernon, where she was in charge of the city’s Law Department. Ms. Raysor is currently outside counsel for the New York State Dormitory Authority, and served as the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Upper Manhattan Region, outside counsel to the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone and counsel at a Wall Street law firm.