Yonkers sued over fatal fall during police raid

Relatives of a Yonkers man who died during a drug raid filed a $20 million federal lawsuit Tuesday, alleging that his 3-story fall out a bedroom window was the result of an illegal police search and the failure of city officials to properly supervise the Police Department.

Exactly how Dario Tena went out his apartment window during the March 21, 2014, raid at 141 School St. has not been determined. But the lawsuit contends that, because police lied to get the search warrant and failed to have an adequate tactical plan for the raid, they were complicit in his death.

"This death remains a mystery because no law enforcement (agency) has investigated his death appropriately," the family's lawyer, Bonita Zelman, said at a news conference outside the federal courthouse in White Plains, where friends wore "Justice for Dario" T-shirts emblazoned with Tena's photo.

The lawsuit was brought by Maria Tolentino, Tena's sister, and one of his sons, Sabiel Francisco Tena Valera, who were named last month as administrators of his estate. Tolentino lives in the Bronx and Valera, 21, lives in the Dominican Republic, where Tena was born and raised.

Tolentino said the family wants answers and to prevent similar incidents in the future.

"He was a good son, a better father, a wonderful brother. ... We have many people who loved him," Tolentino said. "My mother told me nothing that we do can bring him back, but she just wants justice."

In addition to the city, the lawsuit names Police Commissioner Charles Gardner, Deputy Chief William Cave — who signed off on the raid by email — and the sergeant, two detectives and five police officers who took part in the raid.

Among those eight cops were former Detective Christian Koch and former Officer Neil Vera, whose lies on the search warrant affidavit led to their indictment for perjury. Both pleaded guilty this year and lost their jobs. Vera is serving six months of weekends in jail. Koch is expected to get eight weekends in jail when he is sentenced in September.

Yonkers police officials had no immediate comment. The city's top lawyer, Corporation Counsel Michael Curti, said Yonkers looks forward to "vigorously" fighting the lawsuit.

"A thorough probe conducted by the Yonkers Police Department uncovered no evidence that would suggest any wrongdoing in relation to Mr. Tena’s death," Curti said in a statement.

Tena, 49, known as Chichi, was a former minor league baseball player. In addition to his son in the Dominican Republic, he has an 11-year-old son in Yonkers. That boy is not named in the lawsuit but would benefit from any settlement or jury award.

The raid followed a rogue drug investigation by Vera, a housing cop, who had a relative pass money along to another person to buy drugs at the third-floor apartment. But he and Koch claimed that they had gotten information from a confidential informant, who they never spoke with because the informant was imprisoned out of state.

The target of the raid was a Ricardo Polanco, who had previously lived in the apartment. But authorities contend that Tena was selling drugs in the apartment that very afternoon and that cocaine and drug-packaging material were found during the raid.

After Tena's death, Vera also got another informant to lie to investigators that he had conducted controlled drug buys for the officer at the apartment.

According to police reports recently obtained by The Journal News, Vera was the only officer who saw Tena in the apartment once the police busted the door. He claimed he saw him run down the hall and into a bedroom and that Tena, arms extended in front of him, dove out the window, where there was no fire escape.

Tena's family questions that account. Zelman, their lawyer, claims that the Westchester County pathologist who performed the autopsy suggested to her last year that the injuries — particularly a severe cut to the back of his head — were consistent with Tena falling backward out the window.

The Medical Examiner's Office initially ruled the manner of death a suicide in September. But it was changed to unknown circumstances a month later, six days after Koch and Vera were indicted on perjury charges.

The lawsuit contends that Yonkers failed to implement many of the recommendations from a 2009 investigation of the police department by the U.S. Department of Justice. It also maintains that previous lawsuits brought against Vera, Koch and Koch's partner, Dennis Molina, should have "put the Yonkers Police Department on notice of their serious misconduct and propensity to commit civil rights violations."

Zelman said state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman should review Tena's death as a special prosecutor, even though a recent executive order by Gov. Andrew Cuomo for Schneiderman to probe police-involved deaths is not supposed to be used retroactively.

Twitter: @jonbandler