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NYC has spent $82 million on police misconduct lawsuits this year, advocacy group says
By
Bahar Ostadan
Published Aug 12, 2024
Modified Aug 12, 2024
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José A. Alvarado Jr. / Gothamist
By
Bahar Ostadan
Published Aug 12, 2024
Modified Aug 12, 2024
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The city has paid out at least $82 million in police misconduct lawsuits so far this year — a 61% increase from the same period last year, according to an analysis by the nonprofit Legal Aid Society, a New York City-based advocacy and public defender group.
Since 2018, police misconduct awards and settlements have cost taxpayers more than $500 million, the organization found. Just 10 NYPD officers accounted for $68 million in misconduct payouts from 2013 to 2023.
Legal Aid attorney Jennvine Wong said the data shows that the city and NYPD don’t take discipline seriously.
“What other employer would keep an employee who costs them that much?” Wong said.
The city’s police oversight agency has substantiated complaints against nearly 5,000 of the NYPD’s roughly 36,000 officers, records show. But the NYPD commissioner holds the power to discipline officers, and he adhered to the oversight agency’s recommendations in just 55% of cases last year, down from 71% in 2021.
Patrick Hendry, president of the city's largest police union, said in a statement that the payouts don't always reflect officers' actual deeds.
“The city frequently decides to settle lawsuits for reasons that have little to do with the conduct of the individual police officers named in the suit," Hendry said. "Often, police officers don’t know the case is being settled and have no opportunity to fight the case and clear their reputation, especially when there are dozens of other cops named in the suit."
An NYPD spokesperson said that since 2013, the department has seen a decrease in lawsuits, and stressed that awards are often from arrests made decades ago. The spokesperson said that's reflective of improved policy and training.
Many of the misconduct cases settled this year involve allegations from as far back as the 1990s, the Legal Aid Society found. In one case from 1996, the city settled for $14.8 million.
The lawsuit alleged that a Bronx man spent nearly 26 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, after police fabricated some evidence and hid other evidence that would have exonerated him.
Norberto Peets was convicted of playing a role in a 1996 shooting and sentenced to 30 years to life in prison, according to court records.
Decades later, a DNA analysis found that Peets was not a match for DNA evidence found at the crime scene, the Legal Aid Society said. Peets’ conviction was vacated and he was released from prison last May.
Police records show that Claude Staten, one of the officers who investigated Peet’s case, appears to still be active with the NYPD. Staten is accused of knowingly misidentifying Peets, withholding evidence, fabricating evidence and distorting the narrative of events when presenting the case to prosecutors, according to the suit.
Staten is also named in several other lawsuits, one of which is still pending. That case alleges that he was among a group of officers who punched and dragged a Bronx man. He also received 15 complaints of police misconduct through the city’s police oversight agency.
An union attorney for Staten declined to comment.
This story has been updated to include a statement from an NYPD spokesperson.
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Bahar Ostadan
Bahar Ostadan covers the NYPD and public safety. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or message Bahar on Signal at 646-740-7335.
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