Tag: police brutality

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

Police Assault on Video

On June 1, 2018, our client was awarded $3,000,000 in compensatory and punitive damages with respect to the NYPD’s use of excessive force against him on April 23, 2014. See here and here. Unfortunately, this was not the last time Thomas Jennings would be assaulted without justification by police officers.

On July 7, 2015, Thomas Jennings walked into a bodega. He walked in and and began a conversation with an employee behind the counter. Moments later, NYPD PO Lenny Lutchman walks in, his retractable baton in hand. He ordered our client to the ground. Mr. Jennings, his arms outstretched and palms empty, asked repeatedly what it was that he had done. Seconds later, PO Pearce Martinez rushed in and immediately begins punching Mr. Jennings in the head. Lutchman jumps in, driving the butt end of his baton into Jennings’ body several times. A bloodied and beaten Thomas Jennings is then escorted from the store.

Luckily for Mr. Jennings, and much to the officers’ later surprise, this act of police brutality was captured on video.

The officers, unaware of the video, went back to the station house and completed arrest paperwork in which they stated that no force was used in making the arrest. Thomas Jennings’ injuries, Martinez wrote in his memo book, must have come about accidentally.

As for the arrest itself, it was based on a claim that Mr. Jennings and another man had robbed a local takeout restaurant at knifepoint earlier that afternoon. However, there was video of that supposed “crime” as well. That video, which was, in fact, several videos taken from different cameras, made clear that there was no robbery, no knife, no violence, no threats of violence, and no crime committed by Thomas Jennings. All of the criminal charges against him were dismissed shortly thereafter.

Mr. Jennings’ civil lawsuit against the officers is continuing.

$3 Million Excessive Force Verdict

On April 23, 2014, Thomas Jennings was brutalized and subjected to excessive force by several members of the NYPD. He subsequently sued. On June 1, 2018, following a three-day trial and five hours of deliberation, a jury in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York returned a verdict for Mr. Jennings for $3,000,000, finding that that three NYPD officers had deliberately used excessive force against him. Michael Lumer was c0-counsel for Mr. Jennings at trial, along with his long-time attorney Amy Rameau, Esq.  The jury found that PO Andrew Yurkiw had, without justification, struck plaintiff in the face several times, and that his colleagues, POs Amber Lagrandier and Joseph Solomito had also beaten and struck plaintiff after Yurkiw’s blows had knocked Mr. Jennings to the ground. Plaintiff suffered a bi-lateral nasal fracture with a displaced septum, and other injuries to his face, head, and body.  The verdict was reported recently in the Daily News.

In reaching this verdict, the jury expressly rejected the officers’ testimony that plaintiff had swung at Yurkiw, attempted to flee, or resist arrest. Rather, the jury found that the officers lied repeatedly and collectively about how and why they used force against Thomas Jennings, and went so far as to deny that he was actually hurt, even though his medical records fully documented his injuries. In response, the jury awarded Mr. Jennings $500,000 in compensatory damages, and assessed punitive damages against Yurkiw, Lagrandier, and Solomito, for $1,000,000, $750,000, and $750,000, respectively.

We are grateful that the jury recognized the officers’ initial misconduct, and that these officers had lied and covered up their actions by falsifying claims against Mr. Jennings. Perhaps more importantly, the jury made that the officers’ refusal to admit to their misconduct and their years of lying and fabricating were unacceptable. It is hopefully a message that will be heard at One Police Plaza.