The filing was submitted as a response to an ongoing lawsuit against ICE proceedings inside the courthouse and cited Supervisory Detention and Deportation Officer Joseph Harrington’s reference to the events of Sept. 30, 2025. Several press photographers, including amNewYork’s Dean Moses, were manhandled by several masked ICE agents who became irate as they were being photographed and documented apprehending a woman.
The incident unfolded when several agents followed a woman into a public elevator at 26 Federal Plaza. Eyewitnesses confirmed they did not announce an arrest was about to be made.
Moses stepped into the elevator, and the two agents instantly grabbed him and shoved him without giving him a chance to leave on his own accord. Another agent then pushed another photographer, Olga Fedorova, backwards, slamming her and a third photojournalist, Vural Elibol, to the floor. Elibol took the worst of the fall and wound up being hospitalized.
Despite the whole thing being caught on camera, Harrington appeared to alter the sequence of events in the court filing.
“The officers identified themselves as ICE and advised the alien they were taking her to the 10th floor for further screening and processing. The officers took the alien into the elevator. A reporter followed the officers into the elevator, which interfered with effectuating the arrest. The officers asked the reporter to leave the elevator, but he resisted and the officers grabbed his shoulders and arms to escort him out of the elevator,” Harrington wrote.
The ICE supervisor went on to contradict the events filmed and posted to social media that day, claiming that the photographers tripped.
“Multiple people began to congregate around the elevator. As the reporter was being escorted out of the elevator, an unknown journalist tripped on another individual and fell. This incident was the result of the journalists’ interference with ICE officers performing their duties. I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief,” Harrington added.
‘Of course they’re wrong,’ advocate says of ICE claim
Peter Melck Kuttel, detention coordinator for Father Fabian Arias’ Saint Peter’s Church, was a witness to the event and even held Elibol’s head until EMS arrived. He called ICE’s version of events comical.
“There was not any order given,” Kuttel recalled. “He (Elibol) didn’t just fall backward. It’s not like he tripped. You don’t hear that crack of a head for someone who trips. That person was in the air and then landed on their head. You hear the crack in the video.”
“Of course they’re wrong. It’s not what happened. And I think if you ask the other people that were in the halls that day, they would say something completely different,” Kuttel added.
Former City Comptroller and current Congressional candidate Brad Lander also spoke on what he called ICE lies.
Lander, who was arrested by the federal agency himself last year and is fighting his case in court to demand accountability from the agency, told amNewYork that he believes the supervisor committed perjury by lying on the document.
“To lie so blatantly, to the court to put your name on a legal document and lie when there’s video and witnesses who all saw the truth. I mean, that is gaslighting, and it’s perjury, and I really believe it should be prosecuted. We cannot allow officers of the government to perjure themselves in federal court as though the truth is irrelevant,” Lander said. “They wanted to say to journalists, if you do your job, you’re at risk of assault. And that’s the same thing they did to me.”
