Police brutality settlement costs Rye big: $475K

RYE – The City Council approved a $475,000 settlement Wednesday night to end a federal lawsuit by Andrew Caspi, a resident who claims he was beaten by police during an arrest more than a decade ago when he was 17.

The unanimous vote came after officials learned they did not have sufficient insurance coverage to handle the additional legal fees associated with a trial and the uncertainty of a jury verdict.

The city's $1 million in insurance coverage will help lower the costs of the settlement, Mayor Joseph Sack said. After a $50,000 insurance deductible and accrued legal fees of $645,000, the settlement will end up costing taxpayers about $170,000, he said.

"It's incredibly expensive to prep a case for trial," said Councilman Terrence McCartney, a trial lawyer himself, adding that the police and their lawyers may have been confident but "you never know what a jury's going to do."

Talk of a settlement was spurred by the revelation that a police sergeant had written a report critical of one of the arresting officers — a report the city contends had lain unread in a sealed envelope for a decade before it was found three months ago.

But the city also learned in the past week that its excess insurance carrier — which would have covered anything over $1 million in expenses in the case — had disclaimed coverage in the Caspi lawsuit, alleging that it had not been notified of the claim in time. Sack said that position would either be challenged or the city would seek compensation from any party responsible for not notifying the insurance company in time.

The city defended each of the officers named in the lawsuit.

Andrew Quinn, a lawyer for Officer Franco Compagnone, one of the defendants and the president of the Rye Police Association, said that he expected the settlement would be approved, but that the police union and the defendants opposed it.

"We've made it clear to the city that we're not happy," Quinn said. "A settlement implies that there was some wrongdoing (on the part) of the officers. We wanted to try the case."

Caspi will get $125,000 in the settlement and his lawyers, James Timko and Christopher Weddle, will receive $350,000.

The City Council also authorized the police commissioner to review procedures for handling police records and review why no internal investigation was conducted into Caspi's claims.

"The case was never principally about the money," Timko said. "The case was about starting a dialogue in the community so that what happened in this case wouldn't have to happen again."

On Dec. 12, 2004, Caspi, who was a teenager at the time of the arrest, suffered facial and other injuries after police confronted him while he was walking to meet his father at the Rye Middle School parking lot. Police suspected he had been drinking and accused him of pushing one officer and trying to run from them after they responded to a report of a teenager waving a tree branch at passing cars.

The teenager claimed he was beaten after two of the officers, Anthony Rosace and Compagnone, forced him to the ground after catching up with him when he left them.

The criminal charges were eventually dropped; Caspi filed a federal lawsuit seeking $10 million in 2007.

There had been no discussion of a settlement and the case appeared to be heading for trial this year, particularly after a federal judge in September dismissed the city and two top police officials — former Commissioner William Connors and Detective Lt. Joseph Verille — from the lawsuit. The ruling left only the three arresting officers — Compagnone, Rosace and Michael Anfuso — in the case.

But in December, Lt. Robert Falk found a report in his office that he claimed he had never opened. Written by Sgt. Alvin Ortiz four days after Caspi's arrest, the report was harshly critical of Rosace, even suggesting he was an abusive cop.

That led U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff to postpone the trial from February to April. Three weeks ago Rakoff granted the plaintiff's motion to restore Rye, Connors and Verille to the lawsuit. Caspi's lawyers were prepared to argue that city and police officials had shown "deliberate indifference" in ignoring the report because they were aware of problems regarding Rosace but had done nothing to address them.

Anfuso, now a sergeant, was not believed to have taken part in the physical confrontation and Caspi's lawyers formally dismissed him from the lawsuit on Wednesday.

Twitter: @jonbandler