New York, NY —
The Brooklyn tattoo artist who claims police sodomized him, testified before a grand jury yesterday. He emerged confident he would get justice. One of the officers allegedly involved has cost the city money in previous incidents. The City has paid tens-of-thousands of dollars to settle excessive force law suits involving the officer. WNYC's Bob Hennelly has more.
The City's settled two cases for a total of $50,000 that were generated by one incident from 2007 in which Officer Richard Kern was named. Kern is one of four officers that Michael Mineo alleges was present when he was sodomized at a Prospect Park subway station.
Last year the city paid out more than $80 million dollars, and close to $350 million since 2004 to settle claims against the NYPD. Police accountability activists complain officers whose actions end up generating millions in settlements are not not held accountable.
The City's Law Department says the settlements are not an admission of guilt and are often made to save the cost of protracted litigation. Meanwhile NYPD officials complain the City is often too quick to settle tort claims that would never stand up at trial.
For WNYC I am Bob Hennelly.