STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A Staten Island detective who already faces administrative charges for allegedly slamming a Graniteville man's head into the roof of a car is now being sued by a local Junior Olympic boxing champion over a separate incident of alleged misconduct, the Advance has learned.

In a lawsuit filed last month in state Supreme Court, St. George, Matthew Itkin, 18, claims that narcotics Det. Mark Scarlatelli falsely arrested him and a friend last summer and subjected the teens to a nearly four-hour "rough ride" in the back of a police van.

It's just one of at least six civil actions filed against Scarlatelli over the past several years. And the city has reportedly paid out about $160,000 to settle the cases.

Itkin, then 17 and a month removed from graduating Susan Wagner High School, had just picked up a friend from PS 54 in Willowbrook around 7 p.m. when an unmarked cop car pulled up behind them and activated its siren, his complaint alleges.

The Meiers Corners teen stopped his car and two plainclothes officers approached. One asked if the teens had any drugs, to which Itkin says he replied in the negative.

TOLD TO GET OUT

The officer then reached his hand inside the car, opened the door and told the boys to get out of the car, Itkin says.

The teens were thrown on the hood of the car and searched by two officers, he alleges. Police found nothing on Itkin, but recovered an electronic cigarette from his friend's pocket.

Initially, the female officer who found the e-cigarette told her partner, "he has nothing on him, also," according to Itkin's complaint. But the male officer overruled her, the complaint says.

The male officer again searched Itkin's friend, who is not part of the lawsuit and spoke to the Advance on the condition of anonymity, and proclaimed that the e-cigarette contained the potent marijuana drug, "Wax," according to Itkin.

ARRESTED AND CUFFED

Scarlatelli, who was not involved in the initial stop and search, pulled up soon after in a police van. He hopped out, told the boys they were under arrest for "smoking drugs," handcuffed them and placed them in the back of the van, the complaint states.

That's when things got scary, says Itkin, who called the ride to the precinct "the absolute worst experience I've ever been through in my life."

Despite being told they would be taken to the stationhouse, Scarlatelli took the boys on a "rough ride" for more than three hours, according to Itkin's complaint.

The detective allegedly drove erratically, speeding around corners and repeatedly accelerating and then abruptly jamming on the breaks, so that the handcuffed teens, who were unsecured on a wood bench in the rear of the van, flew back and forth, banging off the vehicle's metal walls, Itkin says.

The son of a retired city deputy sheriff and, at the time, an aspiring police officer, Itkin initially assured his scared friend that everything would be OK. The precinct was only a 10-minute drive away.

SAYS HE BEGAN TO PANIC

But after about 40 minutes of slamming against walls while the officers laughed, his handcuffs cinching tighter and tighter around his wrists with each crash, he began to panic, too, he says.

"An hour passes by, two hours passes by, two-and-a-half, three hours passes by. Now I'm the nutcase," Itkin says. "I'm starting to not be able to breathe. I'm sweating. I got these handcuffs on my hands so tight, my hands are getting swollen. There's no circulation in my hands."

Itkin says he began to believe he had been kidnapped. After all, he hadn't actually seen the officers' badges when they pulled him over.

Stuffed in the dark, windowless prisoner transport portion of the van, the friends said they weren't even certain they were still on Staten Island until a third teen joined them in the back of the van about three hours later.

ARRIVED AT PRECINCT

It was after 10 p.m. when the pair finally arrived at the 121st Precinct, where they were fingerprinted, issued a desk appearance ticket and locked in a holding cell until their parents picked them up some time after midnight, Itkin says.

When Matthew's father, Steven, arrived at the precinct, he sought out the arresting officer, Scarlatelli, to discuss the charges, he says.

Scarlatelli told him he'd witnessed Matthew getting high with the e-cigarette, according to a report Steven Itkin gave to the Civilian Complaint Review Board, which investigates allegations of police misconduct.

Steven Itkin says he didn't believe it. He's very close with his son, a decorated amateur boxer, and couldn't imagine Matthew would jeopardize his future in and out of the ring.

But he had to be sure. He took Matthew straight from the precinct to the hospital for a complete drug screening, he said. The following day he brought Matthew to a different clinic and ordered a second supervised drug test. Both came back negative, according to medical records provided by the Itkins.

CHARGES ARE DISMISSED

A few weeks later, the charges against both boys were dismissed when the district attorney declined to prosecute the case, records show.

"He completely lied by saying he [saw] my son getting high," Steven Itkin wrote of Scarlatelli in his CCRB statement. "I am shocked and saddened that this one officer went above the call of duty to ruin a 17-year-old boy's life."

The elder Itkin says he hopes by filing suit against the detective and coming public with his son's ordeal, it will encourage others who may have been wronged by Scarlatelli to come forward.

Matthew Itkin, an 18-year-old Junior Olympic boxing champion, shows the marks around his wrists from the handcuffs he was placed in during what he alleges was a false arrest last summer. (Courtesy of Matthew Itkin)

The 18-year-old, who is training for the Golden Gloves while enrolled at Lincoln Technical Institute in New Jersey, said he still has nightmares about his arrest, has developed a fear of enclosed spaces and no longer wants to follow after his father and become a police officer.

The NYPD declined comment on Itkin's allegations, citing pending litigation.

James Moschella, the lawyer who represented Scarlatelli during his CCRB hearing earlier this month, did not return calls for comment.

At the detective's administrative trial, Moschella said Scarlatelli was an exemplary officer with a spotless disciplinary record.