The family of a New Jersey man who has been missing for nearly 10 months, vanishing the same night he was arrested, is seeking criminal charges be filed against the officers who brought him into custody.
The last time Felix de Jesus was seen was the day police in Paterson detained him back in February. His family concedes he had been drinking on Feb. 2nd, the night he was arrested outside a bodega on the Paterson-Haledon border. He was handcuffed and put in a patrol car by rookie Paterson police officers Jacob Feliciano and Dodi Zorrilla — even though the woman who complained de Jesus had harassed her didn’t file charges.
De Jesus, who lived in Paterson but was staying with his mother in Haledon, was put in the back of the patrol car complaining of a broken hand. What happened after that his family says is a mystery.
"They said they dropped him off somewhere — they didn't give no proof that they dropped him off," Eric de Jesus, his brother, previously told NBC New York.
De Jesus has not been seen since that night. The two police officers involved in the case have since been suspended without pay for 90 days. A departmental review found they violated multiple departmental regulations including neglect of duty, breaking body camera rules, transporting citizens and preparing and filing reports.
But the family said that the disciplinary action against the two officers didn't go far enough. They hired a lawyer and a private investigator, and now have field a citizens' complaint seeking criminal charges against Feliciano and Zorrilla, claiming that the officers failed to perform their duties and then tried to cover it up.
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The family said the only proof they have that de Jesus was taken by police is the body camera video, which was obtained only when a newspaper filed an open public records request. The family said they wouldn’t have had that if it wasn’t for the owner of the store that their missing relative was in before he was put in handcuffs.
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It was four months before the family got the body cam video, and they say it still doesn’t tell the whole story.
"Even they turned off their cameras, so now we know nothing. They didn't make a report to the police department. It was ten days later that the family find out where Felix was, but we already had proof he was in the hands of the Paterson Police Department," said Eric de Jesus. "We called all the hospitals, morgues, everywhere — and they say they never had Felix…Paterson police should know what happened to him. They were the last people to have him."
