POLICE BRUTALITY
Bob
Farrell (name changed to preserve confidentiality) was a veterinarian
working in Hartford for the federal government. After work one day, he
got into a dispute with a tow truck driver (who was in plain view of many
other people on the street who had just gotten off of work) and was about
to tow his car from a parking space.
The
tow truck driver started yelling at Dr. Farrell; subsequently, a Hartford
police officer appeared and without provocation he took out his black
jack and struck him across the jaw. Another officer proceeded to help
to handcuff Dr. Farrell, who was not resisting. He was then thrown against
a concrete wall, in full view of people both inside and outside of the
state office building where he worked before being shoved head first into
a police cruiser.
Dr.
Farrell, in addition to the public humiliation that he received, suffered
multiple fractures of his jaw. His mouth was wired shut for seven weeks,
and he was fed liquid food during that time period.
Additionally,
Dr. Farrell lost his job as a veterinarian with the United States Department
of Agriculture as a result of his reporting of the incident and its aftermath.
Spinella
& Associates aggressively took on Dr. Farrell's case. After a protracted
trial in federal court they extracted a settlement which, at the time,
was the largest settlement paid by the City of Hartford in vindication
of an individual's civil rights.
The
Farrell case was one of the first high profile police misconduct cases
that Attorneys Spinella & Associates took on together, and it served
as a launching pad for the many diverse and high profile police misconduct
and civil rights cases which they have taken on since that time.
(Click
to Area of Practice -- POLICE MISCONDUCT/CIVIL
RIGHTS)
JAIL SUICIDE CASE
Life
was starting to look good again for 26 year old Mel Berger (name changed
to preserve confidentiality). He was engaged to a very nice woman and
his business prospects were improving after recovering from a bout of
depression.
Mel
had attempted suicide before by running to the cemetery and going through
the motions of slashing his wrists. The Berger family had been advised
to call police if Mel talked about committing suicide. The family couldn't
control him because he was so big -- 6 feet, 4 inches tall. His nickname
was "Lurch."
On
a summer night in 1989, Mel told his family that he was going to the cemetery
to kill himself. His younger brother Jim, who idolized him, tackled him
and tried to stop him. Mrs. Berger called the local police, asking them
to take Mel to the hospital because he was depressed and acting up.
When
the police arrived, Mel was sitting on the neighbors' lawn, with his fiancé
and his father, waiting for the officers to take him to the hospital.
His brother arrived shortly thereafter.
Instead
of calming the situation, the officer arriving on the scene -- who was
the son of the police chief -- handcuffed Mel, roughed him up and shoved
him into the cruiser. Jim Berger, then 21, witnessed this and protested.
Jim was arrested and accused of breach of peace. He was placed in another
cruiser.
At
this point, Mel Berger became agitated again. He started hitting his head
against the cage in the back seat of the cruiser. The family pleaded with
police to bring Mel to the hospital. But instead, the police brought Mel
to the police station. They threw him in a cell diagonally across from
the cell where they locked up his younger brother Jim. Then the police
went upstairs.
Eventually,
the family members who were not incarcerated arrived upstairs. Police
failed to tell them what was going on. They were just told to fill out
some forms.
Mel
Berger hung himself, using his shirt, in front of his brother. As Jim
screamed in terror, police waited five minutes to go down to the cells.
All during this time, police had monitors to view the hanging and Jim's
desperate, unanswered cries for help.
When
the police finally made it downstairs, they cut Mel loose. He was unconscious
but still breathing. They left him sitting and went back upstairs. Soon
thereafter, Mel hung himself a second time. As police waited upstairs,
Mel hung himself with his long sock.
Another
several minutes passed. With Jim screaming in horror, police cut Mel down
a second time. About this time, police upstairs told the parents that
they now agreed to take Mel to the hospital. They did not, however, tell
them why.
The
police had failed to administer first aid to Mel until, about 20 minutes
after the second hanging, when he started turning blue.
The
ambulance company, meanwhile, was out of radio contact at Dunkin Donuts.
This ambulance company, which had a contract with the city, did not arrive
for 32 minutes. When the ambulance finally arrived, they did start to
administer proper first aid. But it was too late.
Mel
Berger finally made it to the hospital. He was dead on arrival at the
hospital steps.
Attorney
Jaffe obtained what was described as the first or second highest settlement
in the country from a police department that failed to prevent suicide,
according to world-renowned expert Joseph Rowan. Mr. Rowan has established
suicide-prevention guidelines for police around the world.
The
ambulance company paid a portion of the settlement. But the city paid
the brunt of it.
The
ambulance company was negligent for not responding sooner. The red flags
of potential jail suicide which matched the client's profile, according
to the plaintiff's experts, were as follows: white male under 25 years
of age, depressed, agitated, intoxicated, with prior suicidal ideation
and no prior criminal record. Proper suicide screening, identification,
observation and management could have prevented this tragedy from happening.
"Hopefully,"
said Attorney Jaffe, "as a result of the outcome of this case, this particular
police department, and other departments throughout the State, will take
steps to ensure that such unnecessary deaths do not occur in police holding
cells."
(Click to Area of Practice
-- POLICE MISCONDUCT/CIVIL RIGHTS)
POLICE EXECUTION
Spinella
& Associates not only won a substantial verdict in a fatal shooting
of a resident by New Haven police, they also exposed flaws in the department's
community-based policing system as the result of a six week long trial
in 1997-1998.
A
jury found that a New Haven police officer who shot and killed local resident
Vincent Rizzotti (name changed to preserve confidentiality) used excessive
force. They awarded Rizzotti's mother significant verdicts against the
shooting officer, the Chief of Police, and the City of New Haven.
Attorney
Jaffe argued that the officers involved lied and covered up wrongdoing.
Jaffe told the jury the officers were sent on dangerous foot patrols with
no backup; that they were not trained properly how to stop cars while
on foot patrol; that what actions they did take violated their training
and were part of a City-wide practice.
Jaffe
also tore apart the officers' tale that one of the officers, who reported
no serious injuries, was struck by a car Rizzotti was driving. To do this,
Jaffe made effective use of deposition testimony of the defendant police
officers, and then utilized blowups of the scene of the shooting. Jaffe
was also able to produce expert testimony and charts from an engineer
which entirely contradicted the version of events presented by the two
rookie officers, both of whom had been previously cleared by both the
State's Attorney's Office and the City's Board of Police Commissioners
after a three day hearing. Jaffe was also confronted by Dr. Henry Lee,
of O. J. Simpson fame, who testified for the City.
Police
claimed they saw Rizzotti make a drug deal and then tried to get him to
stop his station wagon. The evidence refuted the defendant's contention
that any drug deal was ever consummated.
"I'm
happy that Vinnie Rizzotti's name has been vindicated, and that someone
has finally found that what happened was not his fault, Jaffe said. Nobody
in this country, regardless of his or her station in life, deserves to
be executed in the streets for a suspected crime, "
(Click
to Area of Practice -- POLICE MISCONDUCT/CIVIL
RIGHTS)
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Police Misconduct and
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