By Larry Barszewski Sun
Sentinel
Man receives $65,000 settlement
after being arrested by Fort Lauderdale police after ordering a slice of pizza
Fort Lauderdale settles false
arrest lawsuit for $65,000.
FORT LAUDERDALE — Commissioners
approved paying $65,000 Tuesday to a man who sued the city last year after being arrested while trying to buy a
slice of pizza at a beach restaurant.
The suit is at least the fifth
the city has settled in the past year involving police actions, costing the
city $435,000. Hospodavis, 50, has been with the department for 24 years.
Gluck, 46, a former commercial
airline pilot from Plantation, had spent the night of March 4 partying with
some friends, first at Lulu's Bait Shack at Beach Place and later at the Elbo
Room, and then went to one of the friend's apartments to watch a soccer match,
according to the lawsuit.
When a taxi dropped him off
near the Quarterdeck Seafood Bar the next morning so he could retrieve his car,
he stopped off at the Boccaccino Cafe and Pizzeria on South State Road A1A to
get something to eat.
At about the same time,
Hospodavis was responding to a call that two men were "threatening customers
and throwing their shoes" at Spazio's restaurant, according to the police
report. The two men had already left Spazio's by the time Hospodavis arrived.
He then reported seeing Gluck and another man fitting the suspects'
descriptions at Boccaccino's.
According to the suit,
Hospodavis shouted at Gluck and another man to "get out here." When
Gluck said he had just ordered a slice of pizza, he said Hospodavis responded
by saying "I'm sick of coming down here for you punks," according to
the suit.
Gluck started to pick up a
closed beer bottle that was on the counter next to him, at which point
Hospodavis said he "felt threatened and took him into custody,"
charging Gluck with disorderly intoxication.
Gluck said Hospodavis
handcuffed him and only made the cuffs tighter when Gluck complained about his
hand being in pain. The suit said the cuffs caused nerve injuries to his hand.
The charge against Gluck was
later dropped. Police spokeswoman DeAnna Greenlaw said she was unaware of any
disciplinary action against Hospodavis and that no complaint was filed with
internal affairs.
Settlement
reached in Michael Ververis' Springfield police brutality suit
SPRINGFIELD - This is a
screenshot from a website set up to support Michael Ververis, who accused
Springfield police of police brutality in a federal lawsuit. (The Republican
file)
By Stephanie Barry |
sbarry@repub.com
Fired Lee Police Chief Joseph
Buffis moves to suppress evidence in upcoming extortion, fraud trial
• Springfield man faces more than 7 years in prison after
police caught him with illegal, loaded gun during a foot chase
• The week in review in U.S. District Court
• Drug trial in federal court in Springfield stymied by
allegations of sexual improprieties between defendant, DEA task force member
• Settlement reached in Michael Ververis' Springfield police
brutality suit
SPRINGFIELD - The city has
reached a settlement with Michael Ververis, a FedEx driver from Connecticut who
sued police after he said he was beaten and choked during an unjustified arrest
in 2011.
The settlement, the terms of
which have not been released, comes a week before the case was set for trial in
U.S. District Court and at the urging of Judge Michael A. Ponsor.
Lawyers for the plaintiff, city
and four police officers named in the lawsuit gathered at federal court on
Thursday for a final pretrial conference to discuss brass tacks issues such as
scheduling and jury selection. The trial was set to begin Feb. 23.
However, Ponsor asked why
settlement talks had fallen apart between the parties and called the attorney
into his chambers for several hours. A settlement notice was filed in the case
late Friday.
David P. Hoose, a lawyer for
Ververis, 26, declined comment. Lawyers for the city could not immediately be
reached.
Ververis alleges in a complaint
filed last year that police targeted him as he was driving away from the city's
entertainment district on Jan. 9, 2011. He argued police struck his car with a
flashlight as he was traveling out with two friends. When he demanded a badge
number, they dragged him out of the car, choking and beating him in front of a
crowd of bystanders, the complaint states.
Police countered that Ververis
had been disorderly, resisted arrest and grabbed for an officer's gun during
the confrontation just after 2 a.m. In their report, however, they failed to
document that they grabbed a bystander's cell phone after spotting her
apparently taking video of Ververis' arrest.
The phone was returned to the
woman almost three months later, but the video wasn't there, according to court
records and separate proceedings related to the incident.
Ververis was ultimately
acquitted of resisting arrest and assault and battery on a police officer after
a trial in Springfield District Court in 2013.
The settlement caps a rough
six-month stretch for the city in terms of court settlements and jury awards.
In October, a Hampden County Superior Court jury awarded bar owner Will
Quarterman $350,000 after finding the city License Commission and former Mayor
Charles V. Ryan retaliated against him over a liquor license eight years
earlier. That award jumped to $675,000 with annual interest.
In September, a jury in U.S.
District Court awarded the mother of Delano Walker Jr. $1.3 million. The panel
found Police Officer Sean Sullivan violated the 15-year-old's civil rights by
using excessive force during a stop, forcing him into traffic on Columbus
Avenue where he was struck and killed by a car.
The city negotiated with
plaintiff's lawyers, Hoose and Luke Ryan, to reduce the award to $1 million and
pay it almost immediately.
Man
sues city, police officer for $1.5 million
A 36-year-old Oak Ridge man has
filed suit against the city and Oak Ridge police officer Jeremy Upham for false
arrest stemming from a Jan. 14, 2014, shoplifting incident at Walmart.
By Russel Langley/The Oak Ridger
A 36-year-old Oak Ridge man has
filed suit against the city and Oak Ridge police officer Jeremy Upham for false
arrest stemming from a Jan. 14, 2014, shoplifting incident at Walmart.
A complaint filed in the U.S.
District Court in Knoxville on Jan. 23, 2015, by Clinton attorney Phil Harber,
alleges that Trevis Reynolds, of 119 West Hunter Circle, was arrested and
charged with shoplifting on Jan. 15, 2014. The complaint further alleges
Reynolds loaned his car on Jan. 14, 2014, to his roommate, 23-year-old Randy
Armes of 119 Wester Hunter Circle and that Armes drove the car to Walmart and
shoplifted merchandise from the store.
The complaint said Walmart
surveillance video captured Armes shoplifting the items from the store. Walmart
security reportedly followed Armes out of the store and wrote down the tag
number of the vehicle he was driving before calling the Oak Ridge Police
Department. Upham was dispatched to the store to investigate the theft.
The complaint alleged that
Upham wrote in a General Sessions Court document that he viewed the video and
the person on the video matched the picture of Reynolds on his Tennessee
driver’s license.
The complaint then states that
on Jan. 14, 2014, Reynolds had no and still has no tattoos and that Armes had
“multiple tattoos …visible on Armes’ neck and hands in the video surveillance
from the Walmart allegedly provided to and viewed by Defendant Upham.”
The lawsuit also alleges Armes
and Reynolds “have such different appearances that no sensible, reasonable,
normal person with normal sensory perceptions could mistake the two men.”
The complaint filed in federal
court alleges that because the two men’s appearances are so different, the only
logical conclusion was that “Upham did not actually view the Walmart
surveillance video before seeking a warrant and arresting the plaintiff … his
allegations in his affidavit of complaint are false and were made knowing they
were false, and therefore constitute the offense of perjury.”
The complaint also said on Jan.
15, 2014, Upham went to Reynolds’ residence to arrest Reynolds for shoplifting.
When Reynolds protested his innocence, Upham allegedly said “shut up” and told
Reynolds he had viewed the surveillance video at least four times and it was
“unquestionably the plaintiff (Reynolds) who Upham saw in the video.”
According to the complaint, on
Jan. 23, 2014, all charges against Reynolds were dropped. A check of the
Anderson County Sheriff’s Office website on Monday showed the arrest of
Reynolds for shoplifting on Jan. 15, 2014. There was no record of a criminal
case against Reynolds from any of those dates on the Anderson County Court
Clerk's website.
The complaint alleges Reynolds’
“suffered economic damages in that he now has an arrest record and he cannot
secure employment as a result of his false arrest and his subsequent arrest
record.”
Federal
jury: Franklin cop too rough in arrest; lawyer seeks $220G
Sergio Bichao,
Arrested at front door in 2009
after locking out daughter.
A federal jury said a Franklin
Township police officer used excessive force in a woman’s arrest in
2009.(Photo: FILE)
• Franklin woman was arrested in 2009 after she refused to
let cops in her home.
• Woman sued Franklin in 2011 claiming police used excessive
force. A federal jury awarded her $1,000.
• Her attorney is seeking $220,000 in legal fees and costs.
FRANKLIN (Somerset) – After a
federal jury found that a township cop's arrest of a township woman was too
rough, township taxpayers could be on the hook for hundreds of thousands of
dollars in legal fees.
A jury in December found that
now-retired police Officer Robert Nemes violated Patricia Roccisano's Fourth
Amendment rights when he barged through her front door and arrested her in
2009.
The jury awarded Roccisano
$1,000 for her damages. Previously, the township had settled Roccisano's
punitive damage claim for $18,000, bringing the total she won to $19,000,
according to documents obtained by MyCentralJersey.com.
But now Roccisano's attorney,
Jae H. Cho, of New Brunswick, is seeking reimbursement of legal fees and costs
totaling $220,000.
Plaintiffs who win civil-rights
cases in federal court are entitled to recoup reasonable attorney fees. But the
township's attorneys say Cho's fees are "excessive, duplicative and
vague."
Roccisano sued in 2011 claiming
that she suffered serious injuries to her right shoulder, back, neck and head
when Nemes stormed through her front door, causing her to hit a wall.
Police were called to the house
by Roccisano's daughter, who had been locked out of the home after an argument
with her mother. The daughter wanted police to let her in so that she could
retrieve some belongings.
Roccisano refused to let police
in and said she began to record the event on her phone and told Nemes and
Officer Elliot Smith that she would call the police on them.
Nemes claimed that Roccisano
tried to slam the door on him and that he arrested her because she was
interfering with their investigation. He also claimed that Roccisano
"struggled" and resisted during the arrest.
Roccisano denies she struggled
and says she did not know she was going to be arrested until it happened. She
also admitted to copping a "tone" with the officers.
Efforts to settle the lawsuit
or have it dismissed were unsuccessful.
A federal judge refused to
throw out the case in 2013 saying that Roccisano did "not appear to pose
an immediate threat to the safety of the officers or others."
"It also cannot be said
that (Roccisano's) attempt to close the door was an attempt to evade or flee
from arrest, because, by Officer Nemes' admission, he did not intend to enter
the premises and arrest (her) until she attempted to close the door," U.S.
District Court Judge Freda L. Wolfson said.
The township refused
Roccisano's attorney's offers to settle the suit for $375,000 and then for
$290,000. The township counteroffered with $10,000, which the plaintiff denied.
The original lawsuit listed 17
counts against the officers and police department, but by the time the lawsuit
reached trial, the counts had been reduced to two excessive force claims
against the two officers. Cho says Roccisano's legal team spent 628 hours on
the case since 2011.
In a court filing by the
township's attorney, Kurt J. Trinter of Dvorak & Associates of New
Brunswick, Cho's billing hours are described as "shockingly
excessive."
The jury found that Nemes
violated Roccisano's rights in his arrest of her, but not in handcuffing her,
which she had claimed had injured her.
The jury also cleared Smith of
violating her rights with respect to the handcuffing.
Smith retired in November 2009,
a month after the arrest, while Nemes retired in July 2012.
News of the lawsuit first was
reported Monday by open-government activist John Paff, a township resident.
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