$3 million EDNY police brutality verdict reduced to $255,000

For plaintiffs, the euphoria of winning at trial is soon tempered by the motion practice that follows. The defendant will ask the trial court to reduce the damages award and even throw out the verdict entirely. This means the case is not yet over, and the fight could make its way to the appellate court. While trial courts rarely throw out the verdict, they often reduce the damages, sometimes in dramatic fashion. That's what happened in this case.

The case is Jennings v. Yurkiw, 2018 WL 5630454, an Eastern District of New York case issued on October 31. This is a police brutality case. When plaintiff showed up at his son's mother's apartment to  drop off the boy, the police arrived after the mother said plaintiff had violated an order of protection. Plaintiff says, and the jury apparently agreed, that one officer, LaGrandier grabbed him by the vest while another officer, Yurkiw, punched him in the face for no reason, causing plaintiff to stumble to the ground and curl up like a baby as the officers beat the hell out of him. The police had to carry him out of the building. The trial court easily finds the jury had a basis to rule for plaintiff, as the case turned on credibility. Plaintiff says the police beat him up, and the police denied it. The jury credited plaintiff's testimony, and trial courts cannot second-guess credibility assessments on a post-trial motion. Damages are another story. Here is the damages evidence:

With respect to damages, it is uncontroverted that Plaintiff suffered a right eye hematoma, a bilateral nasal fracture, a deviated septum, and an inflamed ethmoid sinus, injuries that Dr. Hussein Matari recorded after reviewing Plaintiff’s CT scan at Woodhull Hospital on the day of Plaintiff’s arrest. Dr. Frank Flores, an emergency medicine physician at Rikers Island Correctional Center who examined Plaintiff two days later, on April 25, substantially confirmed these injuries. Dr. Flores noted that the area around Plaintiff’s eye was ecchymotic, or bruised, and had a hematoma, or “blood swelling.” Dr. Flores also observed Plaintiff’s nasal bone fracture. Mugshots of Plaintiff clearly depicting his right eye bruised and swollen shut were also received in evidence at trial. 

 

Plaintiff alleges that the long-term impact from these injuries is that his nose is permanently crooked and that he suffers from “definitely painful” headaches. Plaintiff did not offer any evidence of ongoing medical care to treat these conditions, and acknowledged on cross-examination that the last time he sought treatment with respect to his nose was around May 3, 2014, roughly ten days following his arrest. As for emotional distress, Plaintiff did not allege anything other than the distress he was in during and following the altercation, arising largely from being beaten in front of his son. Defendant Yurkiw confirmed that, at the time of the arrest, Plaintiff was actually in tears and asking Defendants, “Why are you doing this?” Plaintiff did not offer evidence of any psychological treatment.

The jury awarded plaintiff $500,000 for pain and suffering and $2.5 million in punitive damages: $1 million against Yurkiw and $750,000 each against LaGrandier and officer Solomito. The trial court reduces the pain and suffering to $115,000. The punitives are reduced as follows: $120,000 against Yurkiw and $10,000 each against the two other officers.

As for the compensatories, Magistrate Judge Gold says the $500,000 shocks the conscience, the legal standard under federal law, because the physical injuries "occupy a middle ground between non-permanent and permanent," including the crooked nose and frequent and painful headaches. Yet, the emotional damages are "garden variety," meaning there is no evidence of treatment with a mental health guy or medication for depression.Similar cases involving beatings and police abuse usually net around $100,000 in damages for physical injuries. As one case awarded $123,00 and another awarded $100,000, the judge in this case finds a middle number for this plaintiff: $115,000. 

What about the punitives? The court notes that juries have almost no guidance in awarding punitives and that judges have to regulate them to ensure we don't have runaway punitive damages awards. Reviewing similar cases that awarded punitives, Judge Gold slashes the award from $2.5 million to $140,000 between three defendants, with the most culpable officer assessed at $120,000.