A federal jury awarded $100,000 to a dishwasher who was pepper sprayed and his finger broken by a baton-wielding cop during a struggle in a Brooklyn subway station.
The jury found Officer Daniel Reyes used excessive force in arresting the plaintiff, Rodger Rickettes, who had been detained for walking between cars of a No. 2 train on July 3, 2012.
Officer Vincent Turon was cleared of excessive force charges for using the pepper spray.
Rickettes’ lawyer Michael Lamonsoff said his client has a fifth-grade education and always sits in the same seat in the same train car on his way home from working in a restaurant.
Rickettes, 40, apparently did not understand why the cops had pulled him off the train at the Franklin Ave. station and questioned why he was searched and being questioned. The cops said Rickettes was going to receive a summons for riding between subway cars and became combative during the questioning.
They said a knife dropped out of Rickettes’ clothing and Reyes whacked him on the hand with his police-issued baton as Rickettes allegedly reached for the weapon.
Rickettes testified in Brooklyn Federal Court that he told cops he had difficulty breathing as a result of getting doused with two canisters of pepper spray.
“I asked (an unidentified cop) if he could give me the asthma pump and he told me, ‘You’re good, you’re fine, you’ll make it,'” Rickettes said.
Rickettes was awarded $50,000 for lost wages while he recovered from surgery to repair his index finger, $30,000 for pain and suffering and $20,000 to cover medical bills, according to Lamonsoff.
“In light of the Eric Garner grand jury decision, I think this verdict is somewhat of a shining light for people who are victims of excessive police force,” said Lamonsoff, referring to a Staten Island jury which did not indict a cop in Garner’s chokehold death.
A spokeswoman for the city Law Department said: “We respect the jury process but are disappointed in the verdict.”
