By Paul Moses.

Newsday, April 30, 1991

One man said police officers punched and kicked him in the groin soferociously that he became impotent and had problems urinating. The citysettled his lawsuit for $900,000.

Another man said a police officer beat him so badly with a nightstickthat he had to have an eye removed. That case cost the city $750,000.

In another case, a passerby gave the Civilian Complaint Review Boardthe last name of a police officer he saw allegedly beating an unresistingbicycle messenger with a nightstick. The board couldn't figure out whothe officer was and closed the case. But the messenger filed a civil suit,and the city paid him $350,000 to settle.

These three cases were among the most costly police-brutality claimsNew York City settled last year. Police say the officers in the three casesweren't disciplined, and city attorneys maintain the cases were settlednot because of any wrongdoing, but out of fear that inflamed jurors wouldaward much larger sums in verdicts.

A review by New York Newsday of the 10 largest brutality claims in 1990found that the 10 cases alone cost taxpayers $6.7 million  - greaterthan the budget of some small city agencies.

In most of the cases, the officers involved were not disciplined. Thecity maintains that they're not guilty of the brutality claims it nonethelesspaid hundreds of thousands of dollars to settle.

Most of the cases are fought quietly and settled without publicity.All told, the city shelled out $9.3 million for 94 police brutality claimsin 1990. With additional claims for false arrests, the total figure paidout was more than $11 million last year. And in the same year, 451 newlawsuits against the city over alleged beatings and shootings were filed,according to records of the city comptroller.

A survey by the New York Law Journal found that the cost of settlementsand verdicts over claims for police shootings, assaults and false arrestshas increased sharply since the early 1980s, when the annual pricetag rangedfrom $1.7 million to $3.7 million.

While plaintiffs and their attorneys tend to see big settlements asvindication, city attorneys don't. They caution that even big numbers don'tnecessarily mean the city believes its police officers are guilty.

Officers were indicted in connection with three of the 10 cases surveyed,two of them involving the 1985 "stun gun" assaults. In the remaining sevencases, the Civilian Complaint Review Board and the New York Police Departmentinternal disciplinary trial bureau had no record of imposing any disciplineon the officers involved, said Sgt. Peter Sweeney, a police spokesman.

City officials maintain that's not a sign of weakness in discipliningofficers for brutality. Big settlements are paid to avoid paying even biggerjury verdicts, said attorney Lorna Goodman, spokeswoman for the city corporationcounsel. "Juries tend to be very sympathetic to injured plaintiffs suingdeep pockets," she said.

One such sympathetic plaintiff, she said, was an ambulette driver whois a father and an honorably discharged veteran. The Bronx man got a $900,000settlement in a suit that charged police rendered him impotent becauseof a beating to his groin, according to court and city records. The officerswere identified in court records as Stephen P. Hernandez and MontgomeryJ. Delaney.

The plaintiff's lawyer, Steven Wildstein, said the man was on his wayto pick up his daughter for a trip to the Bronx Zoo on Memorial Day weekendin 1985 when police mistook him for a homicide suspect.

According to Goodman, the police said the man responded to them withprofanity when stopped and had to be wrestled to be handcuffed. Policearrested the man for resisting arrest and obstruction of governmental administration,but the charges were dismissed.
 
Goodman said no departmental or criminal charges were filed againstthe officers involved in an alleged assault with nightsticks on Frank Casteneda,who lost an eye because of the incident and settled his lawsuit last yearfor $750,000. A friend who also alleged he was beaten settled for $50,000.

Goodman said the lack of departmental charges meant police rejectedallegations made by Casteneda, 47, in connection with an incident on March12, 1983. Casteneda maintained he was beaten up after wisecracking in responseto their order for him to leave his girlfriend's apartment, where he'dbeen involved in a dispute.

"Every trial before a jury is a real risk that the city will be foundliable," Goodman said when asked why the case was settled for such a largeamount.

Plaintiffs' attorneys maintain that the city settles police brutalitycases only when the facts, unearthed and scrutinized in a long pre-trialprocess, favor the alleged victims.

"It's simplistic to say `Well, if nothing happened, why did you pay$500,000?' " Goodman responded. "We did it to avoid paying $2 million."Verdicts in the Bronx are 150 percent larger than those in neighboringWestchester County, she said.

The city's risk can be seen in the case of William Easley, who was awardeda $6.2-million verdict from a Bronx jury on March 25. It was later reducedby a judge to $1.7 million, said his attorney, Harold S. Herman.

Herman said the jury found that police had reason to arrest Easley,who had been involved in a fight with his girlfriend, but favored the chargethat the officers used excessive force by beating him up. Herman said hisclient suffered a broken leg.

The largest settlement last year  -  $2 million  - went to a dancer from the Bronx who was shot by a police officer underdisputed circumstances on May 1, 1986. Rademas Febles, 34, lost the useof his legs as a result of the shooting and, he alleged, negligent medicalcare at the city's North Central Bronx Hospital. A city doctor allegedlyfailed to notice that a bullet had lodged near Febles' spine.

Goodman said the city was especially concerned about the medical malpracticeclaim. As for the police, she said, the officer who shot Febles was searchingfor a gunman who looked like Febles. "The police thought he was holdinga gun," Goodman said.

Febles was acquitted of aggravated assault on a police officer and sued,claiming he was framed. His lawyer, Michael Maizes, said that shortly afterthe trial began last June at State Supreme Court in the Bronx, dozens ofpolice officers raided Febles' apartment on the Grand Concourse. Policewere responding to a false, anonymous tip that Febles was holding a detectiveat gunpoint, Maizes said.

Attorneys for many of the plaintiffs said they advise their clientsnot to pursue complaints with the Civilian Complaint Review Board, thepolice agency that looks into brutality claims, because they regard itas ineffective.

The review board closed its investigation of a complaint involvingan alleged assault that cost the city $350,000 last year, according tocourt records. It involved a bicycle messenger who contended that a policeofficer, wrongly believing the messenger's bicycle was stolen, beat himwith a nightstick at 54th Street and Madison Avenue on Dec. 14, 1982.

Two people who said they were not involved in the incident reportedit to the review board. One of them, according to court papers, reportedthat the messenger didn't resist and gave a physical description of theofficer, the name on his nametag and a partial badge number.

The review board closed the case because it did not know who thevictim was, had no record of an arrest at that location and did not havea badge number to match the one offered by the witness. But the board'sreport did not say whether it had tried to find an officer "Moore," thename reported by the passerby.

Meanwhile, the messenger, Domingo Ortiz, filed suit. Through thelegal process, his lawyer, Lori Ehrlich, discovered the citizen complaintsand found out that an Officer Gregory Moore had recorded issuing a summonsto Ortiz at the time and place of the alleged beating.

The city settled before trial. Ehrlich takes that as a sign thatOrtiz' complaint was valid. "The case had to substantiate itself for thecity of New York to pay $350,000 in damages," Ehrlich said.

Sandra Marsh, executive director of the Civilian Complaint ReviewBoard, said the board's procedures have been revamped since the 1982 incident."Our mandate is to investigate the cases and let the chips fall where theymay," she said.

In some of the cases surveyed, criminal charges were pressed againstthe police. Two officers accused of torturing Queens teenager Mark Davidsonwith an electronic "stun gun" in 1985 were convicted of assault. Davidsonsettled his case in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn for $450,000. In similarcases in Queens, Juan Rentas got $400,000 and Everton Evelyn settled for$150,000.

In another case, two police officers  -  John Artman and JohnMurphy  -  were acquitted in 1985 of criminal assault chargesin connection with a May 17, 1983, incident. But in a civil trial lastJuly at State Supreme Court in Manhattan, the jury found the city liablefor false arrest and assault on Seung Sik Park, awarding him $372,000.The same jury found the city owed nothing to Park's brother, who claimedhe also was assaulted. Park, a 25-year-old Rutgers University student whenthe incident occurred, suffered a skull fracture and broken leg and washospitalized for 2 1/2 months, according to court papers.

Criminal charges against Park  -  attempted murder and resistingarrest  -  were dismissed, said his attorney, Walter G. AltonJr.

"We thought they [the officers] were in the right, especially becausethey were criminally tried and acquitted," said Goodman, the city spokeswoman.

Other cases among the top 10 went to jury verdicts, as well. A juryat federal court in Manhattan awarded Egyptian-American businessman LabibIsmail $800,000, because of allegations that a police officer broke hisrib in an assault outside his Manhattan home in 1983. The amount increasedwith interest to $909,000.

A Manhattan jury in an unrelated case awarded $261,642 to Tracey Brock,who said a police officer pushed his head through a window inside a stationhouse on Nov. 22, 1987. The jury found two officers, Robert Stanton andMichael Deery, liable for false arrest and Officer Russell Spatafora liablefor assault.

The city contended that Spatafora had tried to protect himself whenan unruly Brock attempted to kick him, and pushed Brock, whose back orshoulder broke the window.

In court papers, the city called the jury's verdict "irrational" becauseBrock didn't have cuts on his face. The officers involved were not disciplinedby the review board or by the police trial bureau, police said.

Like many people who take their complaints to court, Brock did not pursuehis case with the Civilian Complaint Review Board. "I have serious doubtsabout whether it's effective," said his attorney, Paul Schneyer.

Criminal charges against Brock, including resisting arrest, were dropped.

But most cases were settled, quietly.

Largest Payments In Settling Cases

These are the 10 largest police-brutality claims New York City paidin 1990:

Rademas Febles . . . shot by a police officer May 1, 1986 . . . medicaltreatment allegedly botched by a city doctor . . . settled for $2 million.

Labib Ismail . . . cracked rib in alleged beating by officer issuinga parking ticket Oct. 11, 1983 . . . jury award is $909,000, includinginterest.

Bronx man, name withheld . . . impotent as a result of alleged kickingand beating by officers who mistook him on May 27, 1985, for homicide suspect. . . settled for $900,000.

Frank Casteneda . . . lost eye because of alleged beating with nightstickon March 12, 1983 . . . settled for $750,000, $50,000 for co-defendant.

Mark Davidson . . . victim of police use of a "stun gun" on April 17,1985 . . . settled for $450,000.

Juan Rentas . . . victim of police use of a "stun gun" on April 4, 1985. . . settled for $400,000.

Vincent Antonucci and five others . . . allege they were beaten in adispute in Soho on July 4, 1986 . . . settled for $380,000.

Seung Sik Park . . . allegedly beaten with a nightstick on May 17, 1983. . . jury award is $372,000.

Domingo Ortiz . . . allegedly beaten with a nightstick in an Oct. 14,1982, dispute over a bicycle . . . settled for $350,000.

Tracey Brock . . . allegedly had head pushed through window by policeon Nov. 22, 1987 . . . jury award is $261,642.

Sources: New York City Comptroller's Office, court records.