Trial court sustains $650,000 judgment in favor of excessive force inmate

This inmate claimed that four correction officers at a state prison in upstate New York beat him up for no good reason. The case went to trial after the district court appointed an attorney to serve as his pro bono counsel. Most of these cases lose at trial (who will believe the inmate over correction officers?) But plaintiff won his case, winning more than $600,000 in compensatory and punitive damages. The district court last week sustained the verdict and the damages award.

The case is Anderson v. Sgt. Osborne, 17 CV 539 (VB), 2020 WL 6151249 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 20, 2020). This case went to trial in February 2020, right before the pandemic shut everything down. Michael Diederich, Esq., tried the case. I assisted in sustaining the verdict in repelling the state's post-trial motion for judgment as a matter of law.

You have two diametrically-opposing stories presented to the jury. The CO's said plaintiff was acting suspiciously in a prison yard when they pat-frisked him and found contraband in the form of a pain killer in his pocket. The CO's said plaintiff became combative when they questioned him about the pills, and that plaintiff had assaulted them. Plaintiff, in contrast, said he was lured out of his cell by a CO and questioned about information he had provided to investigators about sexual harassment at the jail, and that when he declined to discuss the matter, the CO's struck him about the body, a beating that lasted several minutes. Plaintiff said he could not have been wandering around the prison yard because he was on a recreation restriction and not allowed to go outside with the regular prison population. At trial, plaintiff had no corroborating witnesses who testified on his behalf. The jury believed him, however, and apparently disbelieved the CO's testimony that plaintiff had struck them and was walking around the prison yard acting suspiciously with unauthorized pills.

When the plaintiff wins a trial, the losing side often files a motion under Rules 50 and 59 for judgment as a matter of law and, in the alternative, a new trial, and reduced damages at a minimum. Judge Briccetti denied that motion, ruling the jury had an evidentiary basis to rule for the plaintiff and that he had suffered serious injuries, as reflected in his medical records, even if he did not break any bones. The $75,000 in pain and suffering damages is sustained. So is the $575,000 in punitive damages allocated among the four CO defendants. As the trial court concluded, "the evidence credited by the jury demonstrates the extreme reprehensibility of defendants' conduct."