Note: the dramatic bodycam from August 24, 2021, is below.
August 24, 2021, was Marta’s daughter’s sixth birthday.
By court order, Marta was to have a Facetime call while her daughter spent the day with her father, Dr. Thomas Gut.
Dr. Gut did not respond to an email for comment.
After three attempts, Marta called 911 to speak with New York Police Department (NYPD) for a welfare check.
The dispatcher told Marta to head to her ex-boyfriend’s house to meet NYPD officers, Michael Massulo and James Burns.
NYPD did not respond to an email for comment.
The request was odd because there was an outstanding protective order, but Marta did as she was directed.
Upon meeting the officers, the two took an aggressive tone, according to the bodycam.
They suggested she was violating the protective order and demanded she hand them her keys.
Marta did not hand over her keys.
Despite suggesting she was violating the law, neither officer said it, nor did they say what law she was violating.
After she refused to hand over her keys, Marta called back to the same dispatcher.
While she made the call, one of the NYPD officers also called dispatch, referred to Marta as a “perp” and said, “Be advised, if you get another phone call to this location, it’s going to be one and the same.”
The dispatcher, so far unidentified, stated that Marta had just called.
The officer then went to talk to a woman, Dr. Gut’s girlfriend, and asked to see the order for protection, “you showed it to me two days ago,’ he stated, indicating he was not at this location randomly.
After Marta tried to leave in her car, both officers drew their guns and pointed them at her.
The scene was reminiscent of the killing of Renee Good by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agent Jonathan Ross on January 7, 2026.
Both incidents escalated quickly. In both cases, ICE and NYPD escalated the incident when all training teaches to deescalate, and in both cases, they reached for their weapons when alternative less lethal means were available.
Marta, fortunately, did not suffer the same fate as Ms. Good but that attack sparked her to reach out to me to finally share the bodycam footage she has kept private until now.
After pulling their guns, Marta told me they slammed her to the ground and detained her at a nearby hospital. A recently filed lawsuit explained it further.
A couple weeks later, Marta was charged with unrelated charges, which were later dismissed.
Marta filed a complaint with the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), and most of her charges were substantiated.
She told me that the officers were given a slap on the wrist, a week’s suspension.
One of the officers, James Burns, has six total complaints with the CCRB, including Marta’s.
The misuse of physical force was recurring occurrence with Officer Burns.
She has since filed a lawsuit.
I spoke with Marta’s lawyer, Chris Cassar.
All law enforcement officer enjoy qualified immunity against lawsuits, but Cassar told me he didn’t think it would be a problem in this case to overcome that standard.
Law enforcement officers have immunity unless they violate, “a ‘clearly established’ statutory or constitutional right that a reasonable person would have known.”
Cassar said the officers use of physical force went way over the line and would violate this “clearly established” standard.
