SLEEPY HOLLOW, N.Y. --
The FBI is investigating accusations of police brutality and misconduct in the historic village of Sleepy Hollow after officers used stun guns on a 16-year-old boy and another man on separate occasions, the mayor said Wednesday.
The FBI notified the village about a month ago that it would investigate, Mayor Philip Zegarelli said. The bureau will have the village's "full cooperation," he said.
Resident Mario Gomez said a detective who he believed was romantically involved with his 22-year-old daughter beat and shocked him with a stun gun during an argument in October 2006. Gomez, who was arrested and later released, has filed a federal lawsuit against the detective, the village and police officials, claiming his civil rights were violated.
Police used a stun gun on Duanny Lara Mota, 16, in August after he cursed officers and ran from them after they ordered Mota to accompany them to police headquarters. Mota was charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration and riding his bicycle on a sidewalk.
Police investigations found no misconduct, but the department was providing the FBI with records and access to the officers involved, Police Chief Jimmy Warren told The Journal News of Poughkeepsie.
FBI spokesman Jim Margolin would not confirm the investigation.
Sleepy Hollow, slowly recovering from the closing of a General Motors plant in the 1990s, has been trying to generate tourism and other development by trading on its association with Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."
Residents voted in 1996 to change the village's name from North Tarrytown, and on Halloween of last year an 18-by-18-foot sculpture of the Headless Horseman chasing Ichabod Crane was installed at a village crossroads.
