New York City Police Officer Blanche O'Neal is suing the city for $50 million as a result of her arrest last year by the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office on charges she stole a three-family row house in the city's borough of Brooklyn, the New York Daily News reports.
State Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun ultimately threw out almost the entire case against O'Neal, and now the officer faces trial on only a single perjury count, but that's not stopping her from suing the city for $50 million in response.
According to the Daily News, O'Neal insists that she bought the home in good faith for $10,000 from the nephew of the owner.
However, according to a law-enforcement source, O'Neal falsely claimed that she paid the nephew that amount of money for the house and filed a forged deed allegedly signed by him, the Daily News reports. O'Neal is being tried on a charge of lying under oath.
In reporting regarding O'Neal's suit, the Daily News writes:
O’Neal’s notice to sue, filed last month, alleges that a real estate investment company—which contends it purchased the house from the owner’s heirs—received assistance from city agencies to “in essence ‘steal’ high-value real estate properties for pennies on the dollar from African-Americans and other persons of color.”
According to the News, O'Neal will lose her $150,000 investment made to fix up the house and her police badge and could face jail time if she loses the case.
Read more at the New York Daily News.