Cops slam into Brooklyn man's parked SUV, bust him for 'driving' with no license: suit

A Brooklyn man is claiming cops falsely arrested him for driving without a license after they dented a parked car he was merely sitting in - and embellished details about the caught-on-tape accident.

Robert Jackson, 31, said he was waiting in his girlfriend's Ford SUV outside his Brownsville home on April 2013 when a patrol car drove against traffic on the one-way street. Trying to avoid an oncoming truck, the police vehicle backed up and damaged its bumper and nicked the SUV.

Officer Christopher Oliver wrote in the criminal complaint that he "went to the driver's side door of defendant's vehicle and observed the door open and the keys in the ignition" before arresting Jackson for operating a vehicle with a suspended license, according to the document.

Aaron Showalter/New York Daily News

Robert Jackson claimed he was waiting in a parked car in April 2013 when a police cruiser hit the side of the vehicle. The cop then arrested him for driving with a suspended license. "I thought it was a joke," Jackson said.

But a surveillance video Jackson obtained from a neighbor clearly shows he immediately shut the door upon exiting the car and that the cop never went near the driver's side as he claimed.

"I thought it was a joke," Jackson, who works as a porter, said Thursday about the questionable collar. "The cop said, 'Dude, you ran into me.’"

Surveillance video Jackson obtained from a neighbor showed a police cruiser hitting the SUV he was sitting in.

He claimed that he was in the passenger side before the mishap and only slid to the driver's side afterwards. He added that the engine wasn't running and the keys were not in the ignition.

Jackson had to spend the night in jail and appear in court multiple times before the criminal case against him was dropped by prosecutors six months later, records show.

Jackson outside the SUV after the accident. He claimed that he was in the passenger seast, not the driver's seat, before the mishap, and that the engine wasn't running and the keys were not in the ignition, as the officer claimed.

Jackson filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the city and the two officers involved, asking for unspecified damages.

"Up until now, I'm still a little shocked they can actually do that," Jackson said. "I was looking for an apology. They could have gotten the vehicle fixed."

The NYPD referred questions to the city's Law Department, whose spokeswoman said they will review the complaint.