Our client, TK, was wrongly arrested and prosecuted for a narcotics offense he had no involvement in. The criminal prosecution was eventually dismissed for what is commonly called a speedy trial violation, which means that prosecutors were unable to proceed with his case in a timely way. TK then filed suit. In April 2020, a federal district judge dismissed his claims against the arresting officers for malicious prosecution and the denial of his right to a fair trial, which is the formal name of a claim where police officers lie to prosecutors. Michael Lumer appealed the case for TK.
Earlier today the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed the dismissal of the wrongful prosecution claims and sent the case back to the district court, where it is now ready for trial.
Author: Michael Lumer
Firm COVID-19 Update
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Trial Verdict for False Arrest and Malicious Prosecution
We are pleased to announce that our client TM recently obtained a jury verdict following atrial in federal court in Manhattan in December 2019, leading to a final award of $260,000. The defendant officers, including detectives Jeremy Ramos and Shelby Jones, claimed they personally witnessed TM participate in a drug sale, and they and members of their narcotics team, wrongly arrested plaintiff and caused him to be criminally prosecuted. He was later acquitted at his criminal trial.
These criminal charges were fundamentally false, as plaintiff was not present at, and had no involvement in, the drug transaction, as the officers fully understood. We then helped TM sue the officers responsible. The jury in the civil case agreed with plaintiff, finding specifically that he was not involved in the drug sale, and that he was wrongly arrested, maliciously prosecuted, and denied his right to a fair trial. The jury awarded TM $40,000 in compensatory damages, and an additional $30,000 in punitive damages, which were assessed against detectives Ramos and Jones.
In January 2020, the City of New York agreed to pay plaintiff $85,000 (which is $15,000 more than what the jury had originally awarded him), as well as $175,000 more to cover his legal fees and costs to fully resolve the action.
$120k Trial Verdict
LLG just obtained a substantial verdict for our client, TH, following a jury trial in a Brooklyn federal court on TH’s civil rights claims. TH was wrongly arrested during a search warrant execution on Valentine’s Day in 2015. He was jailed for five days and then brought to court, where prosecutors promptly dismissed all charged.
The arresting detective, Essence Jackson, provided a fundamentally falsified version of events to prosecutors to justify TH’s arrest. The jury rejected Jackson’s trial testimony, which was directly contradicted by his own partner, and, on October 30, awarded plaintiff $90k in compensatory damages for his false arrest and denial of fair trial claims, as well as $30k in punitive damages against Detective Jackson. The defendant is also liable for all of TH’s legal fees, the amount of which will be determined by the court.
Michael Lumer was co-counsel for TH at trial with Robert Marinelli, Esq.
LLG Client Victim of Shoddy NYPD Investigative practices
On June 5, a United States District Court in Brooklyn, New York issued a ruling criticizing the NYPD for disinterested and meaningless internal investigations. A trial in that case against an officer accused of beating our client, Matthew Jenkins so badly that he suffered a traumatic brain injury is scheduled for September of this year. The City of New York is also a defendant, based on evidence that the NYPD’s investigative practices with respect to the defendant officer were so lax, so superficial, as to make the City liable for the violation of Mr. Jenkins’ constitutional right to be free from excessive force. The Memorandum and Decision follows below. Today’s Daily News also has a short piece on the decision.
As set out in the decision, reproduced below, on October 13, 2012, our client, Matthew Jenkins, was arrested in Brooklyn on a routine drug charge. The arresting officers claimed — wrongly — that Mr. Jenkins had swallowed crack cocaine, and he was taken to the hospital for a stomach scan. While at the hospital, and handcuffed to a gurney, he was violently assaulted by a Det. Orlen Zambrano, who beat Mr. Jenkins so badly that he suffered a subdural hematoma (a brain bleed). That injury has caused Mr. Jenkins to suffer numerous seizures, and he is now diagnosed with a seizure disorder, for which he will have to treat for the rest of his life.
What is perhaps most shocking about this event is that Det. Zambrano had already been the subject of 15 different excessive force complaints in the six years leading up to his assault of Mr. Jenkins. Yet, not once did the NYPD undertake any meaningful investigation into Det. Zambrano, or alter the way he was supervised. Time and again he would deny the allegations, and time and again the NYPD would announce there was no way to resolve the allegations. The facts of this case underscore the NYPD’s bad faith approach to claims of misconduct. As the Court points out, the NYPD appears to take action only when it must, which is to say, when the evidence is so overwhelming that it is politically impossible to ignore.
A trial in this case is scheduled for September 16 of this year. We are looking forward to it