Earlier complaint against 2 officers

One mild summer evening, Emil Van-Otoo was standing on the front porch of his uncle's house in West Philadelphia, waiting for the man to answer the door, when a police cruiser pulled up.

The two patrol officers were conducting a routine traffic stop, their target a 24-year-old male neighbor who had apparently blown past a stop sign. But over the next few minutes, Van-Otoo would become their primary focus, going from bystander to central player in what he contends was an act of police brutality.

As with other cases of alleged police misconduct, this one has two disparate accounts. Van-Otoo's case, however, is significant because the two officers involved in his arrest July 29, 2009, are under investigation by Internal Affairs for a similar encounter that occurred last month.

The police officers, Jimmy Leocal and Donyul Williams, were involved in the violent arrest Sept. 3 of another West Philadelphia man, Askia Sabur, which was videotaped by a witness and posted on YouTube.

The two arrests bear striking similarities: Van-Otoo, 26, who works as a kindergarten teacher's assistant at a Philadelphia charter school, and Sabur, 29, known in his neighborhood for his drawings and clothes designs, both allege that things went wrong when they did not heed a warning from police officers to move along. Both say they were harassed unnecessarily, ordered to provide identification, and then beaten.

Sabur's claims are still under police investigation. Van-Otoo's complaint was investigated by Internal Affairs and dismissed as unfounded. He has since filed a claim with the city.

Both officers serve in the 19th District, which is bordered by City Avenue, Cobbs Creek Parkway, and Market Street and is considered one of the city's high-crime areas.

The Inquirer reported last month that Leocal and Williams have been the subject of multiple civilian complaints over the last five years, many like Van-Otoo alleging physical abuse. Leocal, a 10-year veteran, has had five complaints filed against him, one by his wife, all alleging physical abuse. Williams, on the force for almost eight years, has had seven complaints filed against him. Four of them were claims of physical abuse. In all of the complaints, Internal Affairs investigators found no wrongdoing.

Neither officer responded to detailed and repeated requests for comment.