Cop Charged with Beatdown Outside Jackson Heights Gay Bar

NYPD Officer Jose Linares-Bilbao was arrested for his alleged role in group attack outside Friend’s Tavern, a gay bar in Corona. Photo via Google Maps

By David Brand

An NYPD Officer was arrested and charged with multiple counts of assault and harassment for his alleged role in a group beatdown of a victim outside a gay bar in Jackson Heights last October, police sources told the Eagle.

Officer Jose Linares-Bilbao, 24, was arrested around 8:35 a.m. in the confines of the 102nd Precinct in Richmond Hill and charged with second-degree assault, third-degree assault and second-degree harassment for allegedly participating in a five-person attack on a victim on Oct 13.

The attack occurred outside Friend’s Tavern at 78-11 Roosevelt Avenue.

Four other defendants were arrested and charged in mid-October.

The victim was attacked by five individuals and hit once in the head by a bottle following a verbal argument, according to the NYPD criminal complaint.

The victim sustained a “laceration to the left side of his head” and “complaints of pain.”

Linares-Bilbao was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court Thursday afternoon.

According to the criminal complaint, Linares-Bilbao told a detective he was at the bar and ran outside when he saw “everyone else” exiting the bar. He said he was trying to break up the fight “but at some point blacked out.”

The detective reviewed video surveillance footage and determined that Linares-Bilbao’s statements did not match his actions, according to the criminal complaint.