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Schenectady cops investigate cellphone video incident
Man faults cops after call for aid in clash with woman
By Paul Nelson Updated 8:59 am, Thursday, July 7, 2016


Shea Juan Abadia still has his sights set on a career in law enforcement but says he'll now think twice in the future about calling police unless it's a major emergency.
"The first thing in my mind is that I'm scared to call the police now," the 20-year-old man said in a recent interview as he recounted how a city police officer treated him after he called 911 in the early morning hours of June 28 while he was arguing with his now former girlfriend in Central Park.


Abadia said he called for police because the woman he was with had taken his car keys and was tugging at his T-shirt as he tried to get out of the car.
He said that when Officer Gary Relations responded to the call, the officer knocked the cellphone from his hand as he was recording their encounter.
Abadia showed a reporter cellphone footage that captures that part of the disagreement.
Abadia said he approached the patrol car when Relations arrived, to speak with the officer. Relations interviewed the woman, who told the officer that Abadia had explicit pictures in his phone he had taken without her consent that she feared he would post online.
Juan Shea Abadia, 20, at his home in Schenectady. Abadia alleges that Schenectady Officer Gary Relations slapped a cellphone out of his hands while the man filmed his conversation with the officer earlier this week in Central Park on June 28.





IMAGE 1 OF 5 Buy PhotoJuan Shea Abadia, 20, at his home in Schenectady. Abadia alleges that Schenectady Officer Gary Relations slapped a cellphone out of his hands while the man filmed his conversation with the officer earlier this ... more
Abadia said moments after Relations spoke with her, the patrolman began accusing Abadia of being a liar, told him "to act like a man" and to delete the pictures.
"Not only was he calling me a liar but he was aggressive in the way he did it," Abadia said."I knew I had to record from this point on because this officer is no longer here to assist me whatsoever, and this situation is getting worse, if anything."
Abadia said another officer arrived and ordered him to be quiet and put away his phone after he showed the video of his argument with the woman.
Abadia refused and started recording the encounter with the camera facing the officers as he questioned one of them about the pictures the woman accused him of possessing.
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"All I did was move it closer, and as soon as (Relations saw the camera), he smacked it down," he said.
Abadia said he feared for his life after Relations repeatedly asked, "Why are you reaching toward me?"

Abadia, who has a criminal justice degree from Schenectady County Community College, denied reaching toward Relations and thinks the officer should be fired for his handling of the call.
"You need to be trained better because if you're doing this to me, what are you doing to other people?" he said.

The police department's Office of Professional Standards is conducting an internal probe into the matter. Abadia has posted the video on his Facebook page.
Lt. Mark McCracken, a city police spokesman, said the department doesn't comment publicly on personnel-related issues.

PBA President P.J.Mullen did not return a call Tuesday seeking comment.
Relations, who has been on the force since 2012, gave Abadia his car keys and told him to leave.
Abadia picked up his cell phone, saw it was still recording and asked the two officers for their names and badge numbers. It was then, Abadia said, that Relations asked him if he could read and told him something like "be a real man." The officers took the woman home.

"I believe I handled the situation to the best of my ability, and I believe my recording was the only protection I had," he said. "If my phone had broken, this would be a story that no one heard."