Wednesday, February 12, 2014

A black member of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's inaugural committee who had two outstanding warrants was arrested after a traffic stop but was spared a night in jail in a case in which the mayor contacted a top police official, New York Police Department officials said

Bishop Orlando Findlayter, the pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship in Brooklyn, endorsed de Blasio in June 2013, when the candidate was running behind in the polls. The bishop helped solidify de Blasio's support among African-Americans, and was named to the mayor's inaugural committee. Mayor de Blasio called Deputy Chief Kim Royster, a top official in the NYPD's press office, shortly after two police officers pulled over Bishop Findlayter as he drove a 2012 Lincoln sedan at the southeast corner of Clarkson Avenue and East 92nd Street in Brooklyn, officials said. The officers said that the bishop had made a left turn without signaling, according to the report. De Blasio spokesman Phil Walzak said that the mayor reached out to the deputy chief to "get clarification on word that there had been an arrest of a respected local clergyman."

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