VIDEO | Boca cop with history of complaints arrested pregnant woman after heated confrontation. Now he’s under investigation

A Boca Raton police officer told a pregnant woman and her boyfriend that they were in “his city,” then pulled the woman out of her car and handcuffed her on the ground while her three young children watched, a scene captured on body camera footage that spread on social media over the past few weeks.

The officer, Matthew McNichol, had received dozens of civilian complaints about use of force, abuse of authority, and language and tone over the course of his time at the New York City Police Department, issues that persisted in Boca Raton, records show.

The woman, Nerillia Laurent, wants McNichol fired. She was five months pregnant, she said, and the incident traumatized her young children and could have caused her to miscarry.

Laurent was charged with resisting a law enforcement officer without violence. At the time of the incident, police also had an active warrant for her arrest on a careless driving charge in 2021. She served one day in jail and was released after pleading guilty to both charges.

Laurent’s boyfriend, Harry Hardy, was arrested on charges of resisting an officer and battery on an officer and released on his own recognizance. His next court date is June 22.

In a statement released a few days after the arrest, Boca Raton Police Chief Michele Miuccio said that “one of” the officers could have handled the situation differently.

“There is understandable public concern about the May 22 arrest of a woman after we were called to a domestic disturbance alleged to be taking place in and around a car on Congress Avenue,” Miuccio said in a statement on social media. “While the responding officers had a duty to identify the people involved and investigate if a crime took place or anyone was at risk, one of our officer’s actions did not help to de-escalate the situation.”

Lazarus Kimsal, president of the Boca Raton Fraternal Order of Police, defended McNichol.

“We do not agree with the Chief’s comments” about de-escalation, he told the Sun Sentinel.

The union is “fully confident this investigation will ultimately result in the officer being fully exonerated,” Kimsal wrote in a statement. “We believe the investigation will show that the Defendant did in fact fail to comply with lawful orders and obstruct justice. She also actively physically resisted our law enforcement officers. The Boca Raton FOP Lodge 35 supports its members and will vigorously defend our officers from all baseless accusations.”

Law enforcement experts who reviewed the footage agreed that both parties could have done more to de-escalate the situation, but said that police were responding to a potentially dangerous domestic call and Laurent and her boyfriend should have cooperated with them.

“It all could’ve been handled differently without the arrest,” said Jerry Rodriguez, an expert witness and former captain at the Los Angeles Police Department who now lives in Palm Coast. “All of it could have been different, had cooler heads prevailed and possibly the officer had been able to communicate his concerns and his respect a little differently.”

The incident

On May 22, McNichol and fellow Boca Officer Timothy Fowler responded to a 911 call about a man banging on the hood of a car in a driveway of a Mobil gas station in the 8000 block of Congress Avenue, not allowing a driver to leave, while a young child was running around the car, according to the probable cause affidavit in Hardy’s arrest.

The 911 caller told police that he was worried about the child’s safety.

“It’s more the kid I’m worried about,” he told the dispatcher, according to a recording of the call. “They’re adults. They can handle their own thing.”

Laurent told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that her car’s transmission wasn’t working, and Hardy was trying to help her fix it. He was knocking on the hood to tell her to open it, she said. Hardy later told police that they were having an argument, according to body camera footage provided by the Boca Raton Police Department.

Laurent and Hardy live in Delray Beach, but she said that they were staying at a hotel in Boca Raton when the car broke down.

Hardy got back in the car as the two officers approached, according to the probable cause affidavit.

Their 3-year-old son, who had been outside, returned to the car with him, Laurent said. Their two other children, a 10-month-old and a 4-year-old, were also in the car.

One 911 caller reported the incident, according to Officer Jessica Desir, a spokesperson for the Boca Raton Police Department, but he called back multiple times because the call kept disconnecting.

While Fowler approached Laurent, who told him everything was fine, McNichol walked up to the passenger’s side, according to footage from his body-worn camera.

“If everything’s good, why are we getting all kinds of phone calls?” he asked as he opened the car door.

“Because we’re having a dispute, why?” Hardy said to McNichol, according to the footage.

“Because you’re having a dispute in public, in my city, that’s why,” McNichol replied.

“In your city?” Hardy asked.

“Yeah, my city, the city of Boca Raton,” McNichol said, according to the footage. “So we’re getting calls and we have a child out here and it’s been going for 15 minutes, for 15 minutes we’ve been getting calls on you two.”

“I didn’t call you, she didn’t call you, so what do you need with me?” Hardy asked.

“I need your ID,” McNichol replied.

“I’m not giving you my ID,” Hardy said.

“Well, you’re not leaving,” McNichol replied. Laurent also refused to give her ID, saying she’d wait for her mother.

The dispute continued for a few minutes more, with Laurent and Hardy saying they didn’t have to provide their IDs because they didn’t call the police. Laurent began to film from her cellphone. McNichol told her she was blocking a thoroughfare and threatened to arrest her if she didn’t give him her license. She continued to say she was parked.

“Don’t touch her, she’s pregnant,” Hardy said at one point, according to the footage.

Laurent told McNichol that she didn’t have to give him anything because he didn’t pull her over and his lights were never on.

“Ma’am, I’m going to lock you up,” McNichol said.

“I don’t care,” she replied.

That was when McNichol reached into the car and pulled Laurent out, the footage shows, twisting her arm behind her back as she screamed, before bringing her to the ground.

“Sit down,” he said.

“I’m pregnant,” Laurent yelled, as her kids, still in the car, wailed in the background.

“I don’t care,” McNichol said. “You don’t have a right not to give me your license and registration.”

When Hardy got out of the car and approached the officers, McNichol yelled, “taser, taser!”

Hardy then ran away, according to the probable cause affidavit. Fowler began to chase him, then abandoned the chase, according to his own body camera footage. Hardy then returned to the scene, where he was arrested.

After handcuffing Laurent, McNichol pulled her to a police car and pushed her in as she continued to scream, according to his body camera footage.

“Stop the dramatics, you’re under arrest,” he said.

As Hardy sat on the ground in handcuffs, Fowler told him that all he had to do was listen to the officers, according to the footage.

“I was talking to you calmly,” Hardy said.

“I know you were,” Fowler said. “[McNichol] was doing his job and then you escalated.”

“Did you see how he came up?” Hardy asked multiple times. “Aggressive, for no reason!”

“Relax,” McNichol said.

“You want me to relax now?” Hardy replied.

“We’re in the city of Boca Raton,” McNichol said.

“I don’t give a f— about the city of Boca Raton!” Hardy retorted.

McNichol’s body camera footage ends shortly after.

Paramedics took Laurent to Delray Beach Medical Center after she complained of pain, according to the probable cause affidavit. Hospital workers gave her an ultrasound, she told the South Florida Sun Sentinel, but she was taken to jail before she could get the results.

The police department’s Professional Standards Bureau is investigating the incident, Desir said. Both McNichol and Fowler remain on regular duty.

Officer had history of complaints

McNichol became an NYPD officer in 1986, according to the employment application in his Boca Raton personnel file. He reached the rank of lieutenant before joining the Boca Raton Police Department as an officer in 2005.

During his nearly 20 years at NYPD, he received 50 complaints from civilians, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union database of complaints made to the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board. The complaint categories ranged from use of force to abuse of authority, discourtesy and offensive language.

Of those complaints, 11 were substantiated by the board, which means “misconduct is found to be improper based on a preponderance of the evidence,” according to the CCRB website. Five of those were use-of-force complaints.

Substantiated complaints then go to the NYPD, which determines whether to impose discipline. According to the database, McNichol did not receive discipline for any of the complaints.

The City of Boca Raton was not aware of any of those complaints, except for two administrative complaints that McNichol self-reported when he was applying for the position in 2004, according to Anne Marie Connolly, a spokesperson for the city.

“As part of his hiring process with the Boca Raton Police Department that was conducted in 2004, McNichol self-reported what appears to be two administrative complaints on his pre-employment application,” Connolly said in an email. “Officer McNichol went through the entire recruitment process with the City’s Police Department and at that time was found to be eligible for hire.”

Connolly said that, though she couldn’t speak to the city’s hiring process from 18 years ago, Boca Raton currently has “a very rigorous hiring process for their law enforcement officers.”

When asked if the city now considers information like CCRB complaints, she said “yes, all information received by previous employers is reviewed which would include things like complaints, personnel files, etc.”

McNichol has been officially disciplined at least five times while at the Boca Raton Police Department, according to his personnel file.

• In March 2022, he received a memorandum of counseling, a written reprimand used to warn officers about misconduct, for allegedly failing to get pertinent information and initiate an investigation after responding to an incident in which the caller described possible crimes being committed.
• In January 2022, McNichol received a letter of reprimand, accused of using inappropriate “tone of voice, demeanor, and attitude” after responding to a civil call. A letter of reprimand is a more severe form of discipline than a memorandum of counseling, used “for more serious or repeated policy violations,” Desir said. “Further acts of misconduct will result in additional and more severe disciplinary action, up to and including termination,” each letter said.
• In October 2019, McNichol received a letter of reprimand for “conduct unbecoming of an officer” during a disturbance investigation in April of that year.
• In August 2018, he received a memorandum of counseling for his behavior during a use-of-force incident while he was detaining someone under the Baker Act, a provision of Florida law allowing someone to be held at a designated institution for up to 72 hours if they are believed to pose a threat to themself or someone else.  While “the force you applied during the incident was within policy and appropriate,” his sergeant concluded, “you were argumentative and rude” to the subject and civilians in the apartment.
• In June of 2009, nine years prior, McNichol received a memorandum of counseling for his behavior while responding to a noise complaint at a restaurant.  “While at the business the allegation was made that you were rude and yelling at people,” the sergeant wrote in the letter. After an investigation, the allegation was sustained.

Not ‘diplomatic’

Law enforcement experts who reviewed the body camera footage from the Boca Raton arrest in May agreed that the two officers had the right to detain Laurent and Hardy, and that the use of force McNichol applied was not excessive. But they also said that his approach, particularly his tone, escalated the situation.

“The officer’s requests were reasonable for investigating a report of potential domestic violence,” Bob Dekle, a retired prosecutor who sent serial killer Ted Bundy to death row, told the Sun Sentinel. “The officer was not, however, diplomatic.”

Dekle is also a former director of the Criminal Prosecution Clinic at the University of Florida, where he taught about the use of force.

The concept of “postural echo” is important here, Dekle said, the idea that it is human nature to “echo” the attitude of someone you are interacting with.

“There is a natural tendency to resent and/or resist someone you believe to be dealing with you in a heavy-handed manner,” he said. “The officer and the lady got into a self-intensifying cycle of confrontation because neither were polite, and the impoliteness grew as the situation unfolded.”

Ron Martinelli, a criminologist who leads the law enforcement consulting firm Martinelli and Associates, agreed that McNichol could have done more to de-escalate the situation but emphasized that Laurent and Hardy were “not educated about basic laws and civil rights.”

The officers were responding to a potential domestic violence call, one of the most dangerous calls police get on a regular basis, Martinelli said. McNichol had a right to open the car door, which was necessary for his safety, he added, given that the car’s windows were tinted and there were people in the back seat. Meanwhile, Laurent and Hardy were incorrect in saying that they did not have to provide their IDs.

“This is not a consensual encounter where these people are free to go wherever they want,” Martinelli said.

The use of force did not concern experts.

“I did not see her being slammed or anything else that would cause me great concern with the use of force,” said Rodriguez, the ex-LAPD officer and expert witness. “I am possibly more concerned with the overall optics and the interaction than I was with the decision to take her out of the car.”

‘We don’t want to go back to Boca’

In the days since the arrest, Laurent has returned to the hospital to check on her pregnancy. Everything is OK with the baby so far, she said, but doctors told her to take it easy because the baby could still be at risk.

Laurent said McNichol pressed his knee into her back, which put pressure on her stomach, when he was arresting her.

She wants him fired.

“He didn’t care about me and my family, so I’m at the point where I don’t care what happens to him or his family once he gets fired,” she said.

The whole incident made her feel unwelcome in Boca Raton.

“He told us over and over that Boca was his city,” Laurent said. “It’s to the point that we don’t want to go back to Boca.”

She said that her kids keep talking about what they saw. Her 4-year-old daughter has been wetting the bed, something that never happened before.

“My kids used to love the police,” Laurent said. “My son was a police officer for Halloween.”

Now, she said, “when he sees a police car he’s like, ‘Oh Mommy, they’re gonna come bother us.'”

Laurent and Hardy agreed to tell their kids that not all police officers are bad, that maybe the officer was just having a bad day.

“I know there’s more than one bad cop out there; I see police brutality every day,” she said. “But my kids don’t see it. We don’t allow them to see that kind of stuff.”