Jul 15
2025
Another Buffalo cop cited for misconduct
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The state attorney general’s office has determined another Buffalo police officer abused his authority through his use of excessive force and other misdeeds.
The AG’s office reviewed 14 complaints made against Officer Justin Ayala between October 2021 and August of last year. The findings were based on five incidents, including his punching of a man while held down by other officers, pepper-spraying a handcuffed suspect, and use of vile language on a teen-age girl and her mother.
The office of Letitia James also took issue with the department’s investigations into Ayala’s conduct, arguing the department erred in exonerating him in several instances.
In addition, an attorney representing one of Ayala’s victims said her research found police officials failed to review critical body-cam footage before exonerating him in one of the incidents cited by the AG.
Ayala is still on the force. He earned $113,300 last year, nearly $50,000 of it in overtime.
He is the third Buffalo officer the state attorney general found engaging in a pattern of misconduct, following Majed Ottman in May of this year, and Richard Hy in September 2024.
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The AG is required by law to investigate officers who have been the subject of at least five complaints from five different individuals over a two-year period. The state Legislature established the Law Enforcement Misconduct Investigative Office to review citizen complaints after George Floyd’s death in 2020.
Attorney Melissa Wischerath has represented two men who say they’ve been assaulted by Ayala.
“Ordinarily you want to think that officers help and not harm,” she said. “I personally represented two people without weapons who were punched by this man.”
Neither the police department, mayor’s office nor Police Benevolent Association responded to multiple requests for comment. Ayala could not be reached for comment.
“Gang assault by multiple officers”
Andy Ocasio is suing Ayala in federal court.
According to his lawsuit, Ayala and four other police officers – Daniel Carson, Patrick Kinsella, Matthew Serafini, and Stephen Lesniak – took part in pinning down or beating Ocasio in an arrest on Halloween four years ago. One officer sprayed mace in Ocasio’s face.
Andy Ocasio
Ayala put his entire body weight on Ocasio and punched him in the head at least twice with a closed fist, according to Ayala’s court testimony and body-cam footage. Serafini struck Ocasio with his knee at least three times.
The blows broke Ocasio’s facial bones, according to court records. By the time he was booked, Ocasio’s right eye was swollen shut. He was later treated for a brain injury and extensive facial bruising.
Ocasio now suffers trauma-induced glaucoma, vision impairment and lingering post-traumatic stress, according to Wischerath.
“It was a gang assault by multiple officers,” she said.
Ayala claims that Ocasio passively resisted arrest, for which he was charged, along with drug possession. The charges were later dismissed.
According to the AG’s report, the incident began when police were called to break up a fight at a party. Ocasio was recording his friend’s arrest on his cell phone. Officers told him to stand back and pushed him to the ground when he failed to comply.
In the ensuing struggle, Ayala punched Ocasio twice in the head while he was pinned by other officers and another pepper-sprayed him, according to court testimony and the AG’s report.
Ayala violated department policy, the AG’s office determined, because Ocasio didn’t behave in ways that justified the use of force as defined by police department policy. The department defines aggressive resistance behaviors as “grabbing, pushing, punching, kicking, biting, [and] throwing objects” that are directed at officers.
The AG’S office concluded that by striking Ocasio, Ayala violated the Fourth Amendment and Article 1, Section 12, of the New York State Constitution.
“It was not objectively reasonable to administer head strikes under these circumstances,” the report said.
Supervisors didn’t watch body-cam footage
The department’s Internal Affairs unit investigated the incident after Ocasio filed suit — 15 months later. They exonerated Ayala.
Ocasio’s attorney found that Ayala’s supervisors didn’t watch the body-cam footage attached to his use of force report, according to audit trail records, which track who in the department reviews individual body-cam video.
Rather, they looked at the body-cam footage of two other officers that were involved in a separate arrest at the scene — nothing that showed Ayala arresting Ocasio, according to the audit trail.
“Had someone looked at Ayala’s footage, we would’ve had a different outcome,” Wiscerath said. “None of the supervisors watched the footage, they simply relied on his narrative.”
Other findings of fault
The AG’s report found fault with Ayala in the four other episodes it investigated.
In May 2023, Ayala and other officers responded to a fight between a mother and her 14-year-old daughter. According to the AG’s report, Ayala called the daughter “a pussy” and swore at the mother.
The daughter responded by yelling at Ayala and the other officers. Ayala motioned to her.
“C’mon, c’mon. I’m right here,” he said, before throwing her to the ground.
When the police’s Internal Affairs investigated the incident, they filed it under “other” – stopping short of designating it misconduct – and made him attend a conference with his supervisor.
The state attorney general’s office concluded this incident was misconduct.
Donate to support our nonprofit newsroomThe office investigated two other incidents in 2023 that they found also constituted misconduct.
In June 2023, Ayala was suspended for one day after violating body-cam policy and “interfering with the investigation of a city-involved accident.”
A month later, Ayala pepper-sprayed a woman who was already detained and handcuffed in a patrol car.
In a final incident in August 2024, a little over a year after his previous suspension for body-cam violations, Ayala turned off his camera during what the attorney general concluded was an illegal frisk at a traffic stop.
The police department had previously exonerated Ayala on that complaint. But the state attorney general’s office found that Ayala committed misconduct and violated the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution and New York state law.
AG’s recommendations
The AG’s office made five recommendations for Ayala and requires a response from the police department by Sept. 18.
It recommended the department re-train and discipline Ayala in frisks, searches and use of force, “taking into account his established history of misconduct.”
Ayala should also be assigned an Internal Affairs supervisor to discuss the report’s findings and identify a future plan of action and review arrest footage as part of Ayala’s year-end evaluation.
The AG also recommended that the police department limit the use of “other” in investigations when there is clear misconduct.
