City Pays $250,000 in Subway Arrest Settlement

The city has agreed to pay $250,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a Brooklyn man who suffered a fractured cheekbone during an altercation with a police officer in a subway station on Inauguration Day 2009. Construction worker and father of three Kalween Rodriguez spent days in the hospital from injuries to his wrist and head, and of course the NYPD and Rodriguez have different explanations for why he landed there.

Rodriguez says a station agent gave him permission to go through the emergency gate at the Sutter Ave L train stop because the MetroCard machine wouldn't take his ATM card. And when Officer Massood Syed tried to stop him, he slammed Rodriguez's head into a railing, according to his lawyer. But the NYPD says Rodriguez was aggressively panhandling and harassing other passengers, and was arrested when he went through the gate. "While being placed under arrest, Rodriguez attacked the officer," NYPD spokesman Paul Browne Browne said in a statement. "After a four- or five-minute altercation the officer was able to handcuff him. Both were later taken to the hospital."

"It is a real indignity that people cannot move freely around in public establishments without being subjected to this kind of behavior by those who are supposed to uphold the law," Rodriguez's lawyer tells Fox 5. Officer Syed was placed on disability because of a sprained wrist, and according to court papers obtained by the Daily News, Syed says Rodriguez was screaming obscenities and calling on witnesses to join in assaulting Syed while yelling: "He's not a cop; everyone f--- him up." In the end, all charges against Rodriguez were dropped as part of the settlement, and Syed was neither suspended nor disciplined. "What did I do?" asks Rodriguez now. "I want to know what audacity does someone have to do something so wrong to somebody?"

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By John Del Signore in News on September 22, 2010 10:10 AM

Comments [rss]

John L

NYPD is out of control.

Ray Kelly must go!

t

Guest

well, at least he wasn't going for $400 million.

exnyer

Can`t get them cameras working fast enough...the video tape won`t lie.

646

Maybe we could shirk our municipal debt if the police did their job instead of acting like little blue thugs. Thats our money they are spending, Maybe it should be docked from their pay, which is also our money.

Petey

Here's another way to shrink the municipal debt, NYC could actually fight some of these nonsense lawsuits.

Bakey

Agree 100%. If you get a judgement against you and you were acting inappropriately, you should have to pay.

Petey

If the city felt the cops did something wrong, they wouldn't back them, but none were even suspended. They paid out this money to make him go away, just like they do with nearly everyone who sues the city.

So this guy is trying to claim that he walked through the gate, and this cop just took his head and slammed it into the gate, or maybe he didn't stop, and tried fighting with the officer.

How to make money without a job:

a) jump turnstyle

b) resist arrest

c) claim MTA employee gave permission to enter

d) get DAs office to drop charges

e) sue city for 1/4 million dollars.

theboneranger

the NYPD should just carry checkbooks in their holsters.

kswissreject

Unfortunately, given the sketchy history of the police for truthfulness, who can believe anything they say? They've brought this problem upon themselves. I for one know I don't believe the police's side of this argument. It could be true, but as I said, their sketchy history makes you wonder.

thelexiphane

Given the wild disparities between the officer's and Rodriguez's accounts of what happened, it's clear that someone is lying through their teeth; this is well beyond a post hoc difference of interpretation. And there should be an eyewitness(s). A station agent either did or did not buzz Rodriguez (or give permission to pass) through the gate.

Here's where the credibility of the NYPD, or lack thereof, begins to take its toll. Until the City begins to crack down, hard (I'm talking about losing badges and pensions), on proven and blatant liars in uniform, this town (and truthful cops) will suffer for it.

Wza

Agreed.

Rocknrope

Agreed. That's the unfortunate consequence of seeing law enforcement get caught in the act of fabricating statements, situations, and accuracies of events.

Keep trying to boost those CompStat numbers at the expense of integrity and credibility with the general public.

And people wonder why there's a "Stop Snitching" issue.