The city and the Special Victims Division cop sued for allegedly groping a rape victim in the course of an investigation have settled the case for $10,000.
Former Lieutenant Adam Lamboy and Officer Lucasz Skorzewski flew to Seattle in 2013, where the victim had moved, six months after the rape. The victim recounted meeting Skozrewski, then-married, for lunch, and him introducing her to Lamboy, who invited her out for drinks. After a bar crawl, she said, the pair insisted she come back to their hotel room, and the following morning, Skorzewski allegedly climbed into bed with her and groped her as he said he wanted to kiss her.
Sometime during the night, he also referred to her as "my favorite victim."
Upon returning to New York, Skorzewski allegedly called the woman incessantly from New York, then stopped suddenly and got angry when she confronted him about it. He also allegedly dropped her rape case.
The settlement stipulates that the city will pay $5,000, and the two officers will split the other $5,000. Both cops pleaded guilty to departmental charges of prohibited conduct in 2015, leading the NYPD to dock Lamboy's pay and transfer him out of Special Victims, and to demote Skorzewski from detective to officer, transfer him to the Medical Division, dock him 30 vacation days, and suspend him without pay for 10 days. Lamboy subsequently retired.
Discussing settlement negotiations in a recent federal court filing, a lawyer for the victim wrote, "In an effort to avoid the hardships of trial and the public reliving of such personal issues, [she] has sought to resolve the matter amicably."
Speaking to the Daily News, which first reported the settlement, Skorzewski admitted inviting the woman to sleep in his room and then kissing her, but denied groping her.
"That is completely, 100 percent false," he said of the groping claim. The News wrote further:
Skorzewski said he didn’t mean for anything to happen in the hotel room, and only suggested she stayed because it seemed like “the easiest choice.”
“I would have been better off paying for a room” for her, he added.
He also said the phrase “favorite victim” did come up that evening, but “it was definitely said by everyone, even by her.”
“It was like a catchphrase. It wasn’t like anything mischie[v]ous,” he said.
During the legal fight, the city argued that the officers had gone rogue in traveling to Seattle and that it wasn't responsible for their actions.
Skorzewski made $97,500 as an officer last year on a base salary of $78,000, down from $117,500 and $84,000 respectively as a detective in 2014, payroll records show.
The admitted cuddle cop was named by another sexual assault victim as one of a group of detectives who failed to catch a serial sexual assaulter before he struck again because they didn't take the initial attack (in the East Village in 2014) seriously after hearing that the victim briefly dated the perp.
Lamboy's lawyer Jeffrey Baum told the News the settlement is "in everybody's best interest."