Cop in arrest of tennis star describes getting death threats

The police officer who tackled retired tennis player James Blake in a mistaken arrest outside a Manhattan hotel testified Tuesday that he and his family have been getting death threats since the 2015 incident.

Officer James Frascatore was part of an undercover operation targeting credit card fraud and mistakenly thought Blake was one of the suspects.

A security video captured Frascatore tackling and handcuffing Blake, who was let go after officers realized their mistake. The mayor and the former police commissioner publicly apologized to the ex-tennis star.

In his second departmental trial connected in the incident, Frascatore said he was just following orders to arrest a man who looked like Blake. He said his career had been destroyed and described the upheaval it brought to his life and family.

"The best way to describe it is hell," he said. "I had death threats coming in to my children, my wife, myself. We had to move numerous times."
Frascatore also accused Blake of creating a "false narrative about an out-of-control cop."