Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf is a New York Plaintiff's personal injury law firm specializing in automobile accidents, construction accidents, medical malpractice, products liability, police misconduct and all types of New York personal injury litigation.

Articles Posted in Civil Rights

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NYPD misconduct cost a lot of money to New York tax payersThe recent incident at a Brooklyn subway station, where an innocent bystander was critically injured by police gunfire, raises urgent questions about police accountability and transparency. Gregory Delpeche, a 49-year-old hospital worker, was riding the L train to his job at Woodhull Hospital when he was struck in the head by a bullet fired by NYPD officers. The officers were responding to a fare evader, Derell Mickles, who allegedly threatened them with a knife. Amid the chaos, a 26-year-old woman and one of the officers were also injured.

As police brutality attorneys, we stand with Delpeche’s family in their call for transparency. His cousins demand the release of body camera footage to clarify what truly happened. Despite claims by the NYPD that officers showed “restraint,” family members are rightfully questioning whether the officers’ decision to discharge their weapons in a crowded subway station was reckless and avoidable.

Body cameras are designed to ensure accountability and to provide an objective account of events when situations escalate, as this one did. The footage could be crucial in determining whether the officers followed proper protocols and if there were sufficient attempts to de-escalate the situation before resorting to lethal force.

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For more than 100 years, we at Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf have worked to prevent injustice. The Constitution makes it clear that all men are created equal. To update that statement — we truly believe that ALL PEOPLE are created equal, regardless of gender, race, religion, creed or sexual orientation.

On this, the one-year anniversary of the death of George Floyd, we want to take a moment to reflect on this horrific day in the history of America. A knee on the neck is, at best, completely unacceptable, and at worst, murder. Tellingly, even fellow police officers and police experts were offended by the cruelty inflicted by Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin on another human being. But the fundamental wrongs committed that day went beyond Chauvin’s conduct. Truly disheartening were the images of other police officers watching the events unfold and doing nothing to intervene. Perhaps now, good officers who observe the clear abuse of constitutional civil rights will take action — and will intercede to ensure these incidents be stopped in their tracks.

The bottom line is this:  we have the right to expect better. We have the right to expect better from police officers when it comes to police brutality and the use of excessive force.  This is by no means an indictment of the entire police department. There are many good police officers. But it is an indictment of those who participate in civil rights violations. And it is an indictment of those who turn a blind eye and fail to act when wrongs are perpetrated before their very eyes.

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New York Civil Right Attorney DonadioOur NY civil rights attorney Christopher J. Donadio recently lectured at the American Association for Justice Winter Convention in Austin, Texas. He was asked to speak at the convention to educate plaintiff’s lawyers from around the country on how to litigate cases where police officers have unlawfully used Tasers to injure innocent people.

As of 2016, over 97.5% of police departments in the United States employ officers that carry Tasers, devices that can incapacitate a person with electricity. Although Tasers can be useful in reducing the need for deadly force, unfortunately, many officers have used them inappropriately and severely harmed and/or killed innocent people. As a result, there has been a rise in lawsuits involving the excessive use of Tasers. Despite the seemingly straight forward nature of cases involving excessive force by the use of a Taser, there are complicated legal issues, including the Qualified Immunity Defense, that can prevent those injured from obtaining justice.

Unfortunately many innocent victims have been denied justice because their attorneys did not have the knowledge to negotiate the various complex legal issues. As a result of Mr. Donadio’s success in litigating Taser cases, he was asked to educate lawyers from all over the country as to what must be done to insure that their clients are not denied justice.

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In Newmaker v. City of Fortuna, et. al.,Docket #14-15098, The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed The District Court’s granting of summary judgment for the defendants in this action predicated on 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The plaintiffs claimed that Maxwell Soeth, a City of Fortuna police officer, used excessive force during an attempted arrest when he fatally shot Jacob Newmaker. Soeth claimed that he shot Newmaker because he grabbed Soeth’s  baton. Soeth testified that Newmaker was standing and swinging the baton at the head of his fellow officer at which time he shot him. He further testified that Newmaker after being shot fell to the ground and that Newmaker was getting back up swinging the baton at which time he shot him again. The Court concluded that both the autopsy and a dashboard camera contradicted his testimony and raised an issue of credibility and that summary judgment should not be granted in Section 1983 actions which turn on an officer’s credibility which is  genuinely in doubt. The Court pointed out that the autopsy findings “…can be explained only by Newmaker having been turned away from Soeth, bending over, and low to the ground in both shots…” This, the Court stated clearly contradicted Soeth’s testimony that Newmaker was standing up swinging the baton when he was first shot or attempting to stand up while still swinging the baton when he was shot again. The video, the Court stated also contradicted Soeth’s testimony. Although of poor quality, it appeared to show that Newmaker who had been tasered multiple times had already fallen to the street when he was shot. The Court thus held that officer Soeth was not entitled to Qualified immunity as there were material issues of fact including both officers credibility which were for a jury to decide. Read Full Opinion here.

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altonsterlingPhilando CastilleAlton Sterling and Philando Castille are the two most recent victims of an epidemic of police brutality and discrimination against African Americans all over this country. These two men died this week in two separate incidents during which both of them were literally executed by the police.

On Tuesday a gruesome video circulated among social media and news channels showing two policemen from Baton Rouge, Louisiana murdering Alton Sterling while they were  holding him down on the ground. The video shows that he was not resisting.

A day later, Philando Castille was in his car with his wife and daughter in Falcon Heighth, Minesota, when he got stopped by the police for a a defective tail light. As he was reaching to his back pocket get his I.D in his wallet the cop  shot him for no reason. His wife streamed a video live on Facebook as he was dying in front of her.

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New York Personal Injury lawyer Anthony GairOur partner Anthony Gair who represented the mother of Amadou Diallo, who was shot at 41 times by NYPD officers was quoted in an article from the New York Times related to the $ 5.9 million settlement received by the family of Eric Garner from the City of New York.

The case of Mr. Garner’s death differed from other killings by the police because of video capturing his final pleas for breath and because of the number of children who could claim damages. Five are named in the release forms. “I was dealing with someone who left no dependents and there was no conscious pain and suffering because he died instantly,” said Anthony H. Gair, the lawyer for the family of Amadou Diallo, killed in hail of police bullets in 1999. The city made no significant offer “until the very, very end,” he said, ultimately settling the case for $3 million. This amount is the largest amount that has ever been paid by the city of New York in a wrongful-death action for the death of a single individual with no dependents.

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Police brutality is at the origin of the death of Freddie Gray and the 6 police officers involved in the arrest of the 25 year old black man and recklessly drove him unbuckled in a police wagon until he suffered a severe and critical neck injury will face criminal charges. ” The most serious charges were brought against Officer Caesar R. Goodson Jr., who was driving the van that carried Mr. Gray to a police station after his April 12 arrest. Along with involuntary manslaughter, Officer Goodson, 45, was charged with “second-degree depraved heart murder,” which means indifference to human life.” Read more in New York Times. This morning in a press conference, Baltimore State Attorney Marylin Mosby said that after her team investigated the death of Freedie Gray, they came to the conclusion that Freddie Gray’s death was a homicide and that they have probable cause to file criminal charges. See video below

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chokehold.jpgA troubling report examining 10 cases of police misconduct in New York during which cops used the prohibited chokehold move shows that in 4 of the cases police officers used chokeholds as a “first act” instead of verbal communication against citizens who had only confronted the cops verbally and not physically. The report was issued today by Philip Eure, the city’s first inspector general for the NYPD. The report is following the death of New York citizen Eric Garner who died this summer in Staten Island after a police officer put him in a choke hold. Last December the policeman who killed Garner was not indicted stirring public outrage and rallies against police brutality.

Read more in the New York Times and in the NY Daily News
Picture: courtesy of Wikipedia

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police%20brutality.jpgPolice brutality and racial profiling continue to happen in New York City because cops can get away with it. Since 1999 when Amadou Diallo died after being shot at 41 times and hit 19 by the police, 179 additional people have been killed by on duty New York Police Officers but only 3 of them have been indicted and 1 of them was convicted but he never went to jail according to an investigation conducted by the NY Daily News. 27% of the victims were unarmed, 86% were black or Hispanic.

Most of the time police officers get away with their crime because the prosecutors and the police need each other to do their job. Advocacy groups have been asking the creation of a special prosecutor to handle such cases.

Our firm represented the mother of Amadou Diallo, in the video below, New York Police Brutality Lawyer Anthony Gair discusses police misconduct, stop and frisk and racial profiling in an interview with Court TV.

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