By Michele Evans / NYweeklyRecord.com / Date: 11/13/2026
Category: Criminal Courts / NYPD Accountability / Police Misconduct
NEW YORK CITY, NY –
A former NYPD officer’s conviction for assaulting a handcuffed man will stand after an appellate court found there was no reasonable basis for the force he used.
The Appellate Division, First Department, unanimously affirmed Phillip Fioranelli’s convictions for third-degree assault and official misconduct on Thursday. The court also left intact his sentence of two years of probation.
The ruling centers on a May 2023 encounter inside a Lower Manhattan parking garage. According to the court, the man was rear-cuffed and lying face down while Fioranelli sat on top of him. Fioranelli sprayed him three times with oleoresin capsicum spray, commonly known as pepper spray.
Fioranelli argued that his actions were justified. The appellate panel rejected that defense. Prosecutors proved beyond a reasonable doubt that he lacked a reasonable ground to believe the repeated spraying was necessary, the judges wrote.
That finding matters beyond one officer and one garage. Police officers are permitted to use force in specific circumstances, but a badge does not erase the limits set by criminal law. Here, the court said the man was restrained, face down and beneath the officer when the spray was deployed.
The victim, Aqil Alshimary, had initially been arrested after the confrontation. Local reporting based on court records and surveillance video said those charges were later dismissed and sealed after he completed a diversion program. The same reporting said Fioranelli was fired by the NYPD after his trial conviction.
The ruling does not turn every force dispute into a criminal case. It does confirm that an officer’s justification claim can be tested against what a restrained person was actually doing at the moment force was used.
The case was prosecuted by the Manhattan district attorney’s office. A judge convicted Fioranelli after a nonjury trial in October 2025. The appellate court reviewed both the legal sufficiency and weight of the evidence and found no basis to disturb the verdict.
The unanswered accountability question now shifts to systems. New Yorkers deserve to know how often force against people who are already handcuffed triggers discipline, referral to prosecutors, public disclosure and retraining. Criminal convictions are rare endpoints. Prevention depends on supervision and consequences that arrive before another person is hurt.
For Alshimary, the ruling cannot undo the encounter. It does put the state’s highest intermediate court in Manhattan on record: repeated pepper spray against a rear-cuffed man lying face down was not justified.
Sources
People v Fioranelli, 2026 NY Slip Op 06582
THE CITY, “NYPD officer convicted of assault for macing handcuffed man”
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