It has the fewest people of any borough in the city, but it has big problems between police and the citizens they’re sworn to protect.
Staten Island, where Eric Garner died after a cop apparently placed him in a prohibited chokehold maneuver, tops the city as home to the highest number of officers on the most-sued list, a Daily News review has found.
Seven of the city’s top 10 most-sued officers — and 14 of the city’s top 50 most-sued officers — are assigned to a Staten Island narcotics unit working in the territory of the 120th Precinct, records show.
The precinct covers neighborhoods on the North Shore of the island, including the area near Tompkinsville Park where Garner, 43, died after a confrontation with Officer Daniel Pantaleo on July 17.
The News’ review is based on a list of cases filed against officers who have been sued 10 or more times between 2003 and 2013, obtained via a Freedom of Information Law request, and an exhaustive review of court databases. The News found 606 active and closed cases. At least 129 of those cases — or 21% — name one or more officers assigned to the Staten Island narcotics unit, totaling $6 million in payouts.
The unit has racked up the staggering amount of lawsuits despite being the smallest narcotics bureau in the city. With just 40 officers and supervisors, it’s roughly one-fifth the size of Brooklyn North Narcotics.
Nearly all of the cases cite false arrest for charges that ended up getting tossed or sealed — ranging from people collared for their own prescription drugs, to haphazard raids that allegedly swept up innocents and ruined lives.
“There’s a culture in Staten Island, and particularly this precinct, where you break the rules and serve your own interest and don’t have to worry about getting into any kind of trouble,” said lawyer Brett Klein, who’s filed dozens of lawsuits against officers in the borough. “A lot of officers live there, and they’re more isolated from the other boroughs and more off the radar.”
The 120th Precinct also has the highest crime rate in the borough, the most use of the NYPD’s controversial stop-and-frisk tactics in the borough, and is a leader in the number of substantiated police misconduct allegations to the Civilian Complaint Review Board.
The precinct is tied for 11th place in substantiated complaints that occurred between 2009 and 2013, even though it ranks 33rd in population citywide, city records show. And of the 137 cases substantiated citywide this year, at least eight were against officers assigned to Staten Island, and three were against officers assigned to the 120th Precinct.
All of the most-sued officers from the borough were assigned to the Staten Island narcotics unit, which, like the anti-crime unit Pantaleo was assigned to, is involved in aggressive, proactive policing.
Amelia Moore and her teenage son are among those who scored a financial settlement against Staten Island narcotics cops.
Moore, 32, said she lost her nursing home job, then had to pull her sons out of the St. Sylvester Catholic school because she couldn’t afford the tuition, after a band of narcotics officers burst into her home at 5 a.m. and arrested them for a few prescription pills the cops claimed were in her purse.
“They knocked the door down, guns drawn,” said Moore. “They handcuffed him,” she said of her son, who was 13 at the time. “I kept quiet because I was so angry.”
The drug charge against her son was dropped, and he later got a $15,000 settlement from the city. The charges against Moore were sealed after she pleaded to disorderly conduct, a noncriminal violation.
The supervising officer on her arrest was Andrew Hillery , 43, who has 19 lawsuits against him, resulting in more than $700,000 in payouts.
A series of News articles over the past year showed how the city had been turning a blind eye to potential problem officers by ignoring the evidence of police misconduct contained in the suits, leading the NYPD to create two programs to track and analyze lawsuits, and a new tracking system by city Controller Scott Stringer’s office called “ClaimStat.”
The first ClaimStat report identified Staten Island’s North Shore as a “hot spot” for personal injury complaints against police. Last year, there were 98 lawsuits filed over incidents that happened in the 120th and 121st precincts — a rate of four personal injury claims per 100 crimes.
“Commanding officers should use this data to identify problems within their units and take concrete steps to reduce claims,” said Stringer’s spokesman.
Meanwhile, two programs the NYPD created — the Civil Lawsuit Monitoring Program and Risk Assessment Unit — have reviewed claims against 37 officers, most of whom were signed to narcotics duty.
As a result of the analysis, a committee “has directed that retraining be provided to these members, ranging from the use of force (and) employing tactical communication skills,” said NYPD spokeswoman Kim Royster. She did not say how many of those officers are assigned to the Staten Island narcotics unit.
One Staten Island narcotics sergeant, David Courtien, was sued 16 times before he was promoted to lieutenant in 2012.
Asked at his home earlier this year about the cases, Detective Vincent Orsini, the second-most-sued NYPD officer, named in 21 lawsuits, responded, “I’m not gonna go into it, but you can sue anybody.”
NYPD spokesman Stephen Davis said the amount of times an officer has been sued doesn’t necessarily mean the officer has been accused of any wrongdoing.
He pointed out lawsuits will often name every officer involved in the encounter, regardless of their level of involvement. He said Orsini was often the one wielding the battering ram in narcotics raids, and that in a dozen cases, his role was limited to that.
“Only in nine cases was he actively involved in the investigation,” said Davis.
With Ryan Sit
