BY SAL GRECO
A proposed disciplinary resolution involving NYPD Sergeant Joel K. Ayala is raising serious questions about accountability after a review of Ayala’s disciplinary history, CCRB record, prior civil-rights litigation and a pending federal lawsuit alleging that he punched a restrained 21-year-old man in the face, fracturing his jaw.
According to an August 12, 2026 email obtained by SalGreco.com, the Civilian Complaint Review Board’s Administrative Prosecution Unit, the CCRB is prepared to offer Ayala a plea of guilty to charges, 10 suspension days and 10 penalty days. The prosecutor further stated that the offer is a “global plea” involving one additional case and that, should Ayala decline the offer, CCRB would begin preparing the matter for trial.
That proposed disposition takes on substantially greater significance when viewed against Ayala’s overall record.
The Jaylin Ryan Case
Ryan’s federal civil-rights lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of New York in April 2025 against the City of New York, Ayala, Sergeant Brian P. Mahon and several other NYPD officers. The complaint identifies Ayala as Shield No. 4081 and Tax Registry No. 954509.
The allegations are severe.
According to the federal complaint, Ryan, then 21 years old and with no criminal record, was standing beside his mother’s Mercedes-Benz outside 187 East 188th Street in the Bronx on December 28, 2024 when officers approached and demanded identification. Ryan allegedly asked what he had done wrong before multiple officers grabbed and restrained him. The complaint alleges that while Ryan was being physically restrained, Ayala punched him in the face with a closed fist.
After Ryan was released, he went to Lincoln Hospital, where the complaint says he was diagnosed with a fractured jaw consistent with blunt-force trauma. Weeks later, on January 16, 2025, the disorderly-conduct charge issued against him was dismissed as legally insufficient.
The Sanders Firm article describing the litigation similarly states that Ryan alleges he was restrained and handcuffed when Ayala struck him, and that the incident was followed by a disputed disorderly-conduct summons and later traffic summonses.
These remain allegations in pending civil litigation and should not be confused with a judicial finding of liability.
Allegations of Racial Profiling
Ryan’s lawsuit also places racial profiling at the center of the encounter.
The complaint alleges that Sergeant Mahon later told Ryan’s mother that her son was a Black man driving a Mercedes with tinted windows and that police search vehicles like that for drugs and guns.
The lawsuit argues that the statement, when combined with the circumstances of the stop, the force allegedly used against Ryan and the subsequent summonses, supports Ryan’s claim that the encounter was influenced by race.
The Sanders Firm has characterized the case as involving not merely excessive force but an alleged attempt to create a justification for what happened afterward.
Ayala’s CCRB Record Has Continued to Grow
The 50-a.org profile supplied to SalGreco.com lists an extensive complaint history for Ayala that has grown beyond the numbers contained in Ryan’s original April 2025 federal complaint.
The current profile shows 25 complaints, 92 allegations and 36 substantiated allegations.
Those 36 substantiated allegations include findings involving physical force, bias-based policing based on race and color, failure to explain an encounter, repeated failures to provide Right to Know Act cards, frisks, improper use of body-worn cameras, refusals to provide identifying information, searches, stops, an unlawful summons, vehicle searches and vehicle stops.
According to the profile, the dispositions of those 36 substantiated allegations include eight resulting in formalized training, 22 in Command Discipline A, two in Command Discipline B and four involving charges.
Those figures are particularly notable because Ryan’s federal complaint, filed in April 2025, cited an earlier snapshot of Ayala’s record: at least 20 civilian complaints, 74 allegations and 29 substantiated allegations.
In other words, the record presented through 50-a.org now reflects additional complaints and substantiated allegations beyond those identified when the Ryan lawsuit was filed.
The 50-a.org profile is an aggregation of public disciplinary and litigation information and is not itself an adjudicatory body. A complaint is also not equivalent to a substantiated finding, which is why the distinction between Ayala’s 92 total allegations and 36 substantiated allegations is important.
More Than $600,000 in Lawsuit Settlements
Ayala’s civil-litigation history adds another layer.
Ryan’s federal complaint alleges that Ayala had already been named in at least 12 civil-rights lawsuits resulting in approximately $621,000 in taxpayer-funded settlements.
50-a.org lists settlements of $335,000, $65,000, $45,000, three separate settlements between $25,000 and $40,000, a $37,500 settlement, a $30,000 settlement and a $3,500 settlement—totaling approximately $621,000.
Among the cases identified in Ryan’s complaint are Delgado v. City of New York, which the lawsuit describes as producing a $335,000 settlement; Franklin v. City of New York, with a $65,000 settlement; Barnes and Plummer, each involving $40,000 settlements; and Rampersad, involving a $37,500 settlement.
Civil settlements do not by themselves constitute admissions of wrongdoing by Ayala or the City. But the volume of litigation, when considered alongside substantiated CCRB findings and formal departmental discipline, raises legitimate questions concerning what the NYPD considers sufficient corrective action for a supervisor with a lengthy record of complaints.
Ayala Was Already Found Guilty in an NYPD Department Trial
Perhaps the most consequential part of Ayala’s history comes from the NYPD itself.
In a separate disciplinary proceeding concerning an October 12, 2023 incident, Ayala was charged with failing to coordinate de-escalation and failing to direct tactics to minimize the possibility of injuries while supervising an incident inside a precinct cell area.
After trial, an NYPD tribunal found Ayala guilty of both specifications.
The tribunal found that although Ayala initially attempted to de-escalate the confrontation verbally, he subsequently unlocked the cell and led approximately a dozen officers into what the decision characterized as an unorganized rush. The tribunal concluded that there was no immediate need to rush into the locked cell rather than first formulate a safer tactical plan.
The Department Advocate sought an even harsher penalty: 50 vacation days and dismissal probation. Part of the Department’s argument sought aggravated discipline based upon an alleged failure to intervene in unauthorized force resulting in injury.
The trial judge ultimately rejected that additional failure-to-intervene punishment because Ayala had not been separately charged with that offense and instead recommended that Ayala forfeit 30 vacation days. At the time, the tribunal also cited significant mitigating factors, including Ayala’s then-lack of a formal disciplinary record and his 118 departmental medals.
That history creates an extraordinary comparison with what is happening now.
The NYPD previously sought 50 days plus dismissal probation against Ayala for supervisory failures surrounding a use-of-force incident.
Now, CCRB is proposing 10 suspension days and 10 penalty days as a global plea involving two cases, despite the Ryan matter alleging that Ayala personally punched a restrained civilian in the face and caused a fractured jaw.
The cases involve different facts, charges and procedural circumstances, and the prior Department Advocate recommendation does not dictate what CCRB must seek today. Nevertheless, the contrast presents an obvious question about consistency in NYPD discipline.
From the 46th Precinct to the Training Bureau
The current 50-a.org profile supplied to SalGreco.com lists Ayala as assigned to the NYPD Training Bureau since November 2025, after previous assignments that included the Gun Violence Suppression Division, Patrol Borough Bronx, the 52nd Precinct, Strategic Response Group and 46th Precinct.
That creates yet another question for the Department: how does a sergeant with this record wind up assigned to the very bureau responsible for training members of the NYPD?
The significance of such an assignment is difficult to ignore when Ayala has previously been found guilty at a Department Trial for failing to properly supervise and coordinate tactics during a use-of-force incident.
Eric Sanders Rejects the Proposed Deal
Attorney Eric Sanders, who represents Ryan, responded sharply to CCRB after learning of the proposed global disposition.
Sanders wrote that “Sergeant Joel K. Ayala must be terminated,” arguing that anything short of termination would undermine the credibility of the disciplinary process.
His position became even stronger after reviewing Ayala’s previous NYPD disciplinary case. Sanders noted that Ayala had already been found guilty following the 2023 use-of-force incident and contrasted the Department’s previous pursuit of substantial discipline with the significantly smaller global plea now being proposed.
Sanders has also publicly framed the Ryan allegations as extending beyond civil liability. In his April 2025 statement about the federal lawsuit, he said:
“This is not just a civil rights lawsuit—it’s a criminal matter.”
In his August 12 response to CCRB, Sanders argued that a restrained civilian allegedly suffering a fractured jaw from an intentional punch, viewed alongside Ayala’s history, warrants termination rather than a 20-day global settlement.
The Accountability Question
No officer should be judged simply by the number of complaints or lawsuits attached to his name. Complaints can be unfounded, lawsuits can settle without admissions of wrongdoing, and officers are entitled to due process in disciplinary proceedings.
But this situation goes considerably beyond raw complaint totals.
Ayala has substantiated CCRB allegations. He has already been tried by his own Department and found guilty of supervisory misconduct. The City has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars resolving lawsuits in which he was named. He is now a defendant in another federal action alleging that he personally punched a restrained man whose fractured jaw was subsequently diagnosed at a hospital. And CCRB is now proposing a guilty plea carrying 10 suspension days and 10 penalty days that would apparently resolve Ryan’s matter together with another case.
Those facts make the question unavoidable:
What exactly does an NYPD supervisor have to do before the disciplinary system determines that 20 days is no longer enough?