Author: Michael Lumer

LLG Obtains $240k False Arrest Settlement

In early December 2017 we were able to help bring about a favorable settlement for five young men who were wrongly arrested and jailed for a day by the NYPD. In April 2014 dozens of people convened in the Bronx to pay their respects at a memorial service. As the attendees dispersed, members of the NYPD arrested a man for possession of a handgun and narcotics. For reasons the officers could never properly articulate, they also arrested five other young men, whose only crime was being on the same street as the first man. The five men were arrested and left sitting on the sidewalk on handcuffs in their home neighborhood for some 30 minutes. Eventually they were brought to a local police station, and then Central Booking. The Bronx District Attorney interviewed the arresting officer and immediately concluded that there was no basis for these arrests. All five were then released.

The men brought suit. In December 2017, on the eve of trial, the City of New York, on behalf of the defendant officers (Edwin Espinal, Ryan Gillis, Eric Healy, and Jeremy Scheublin) agreed to pay $240,000 to settle the matter. We are happy to have played a part in bringing about a measure of justice for these men, who should never have been arrested.

Prison Assault Settlement

We are happy to announce that LLG was able to secure a $187,500 settlement for a client who was violently assaulted while in the custody of the City of New York’s Department of Corrections at its Metropolitan Detention Center in lower Manhattan. Our client, who we represented along with Amy Rameau, Esq., had complained to DOC guards that another inmate was threatening him. Nothing was done and shortly thereafter, the other inmate struck our client from behind, and then viciously beat him. The case was filed and litigated in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and was formally dismissed by the court following the settlement on December 4, 2017.

Inmate-on-inmate assaults are difficult cases to successfully pursue. A plaintiff has to demonstrate not only that he or she was the victim of an attack (and not participants in a fight), but that the DOC had advance notice that the plaintiff was particularly vulnerable, and failed to take reasonable steps to protect the inmate. Here, we were able to establish that the guards saw and heard the initial threats by the attacker, and made no effort to separate plaintiff and the other inmate. We are proud of this result and the work that we performed that helped bring about the settlement.