Fate of wrongful-death suit against Suffolk, cops in hands of jury

Suffolk police officers were "pumped up" and intent on "dehumanizing" Kenny Lazo the night he died in custody, an attorney for the Bay Shore man's family told a jury Wednesday in Central Islip federal court.

A lawyer defending Suffolk County in the wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the family described for the same jury a "life or death" battle — on one side, Suffolk police officers, on the other, Lazo, 24, powerfully built, and willing to do whatever it took to escape an arrest on a drug charge following a traffic stop.

Both sides summed up their version of events on April 12, 2008, during closing arguments Wednesday after a three-week federal trial. It will be up to the jury to decide, starting Thursday, whether police used "appropriate and justified" force, or beat an unarmed Lazo, and then refused to take him to a hospital for treatment. Lazo was found unconscious later that night inside a jail cell at the Third Precinct in Bay Shore. 

An autopsy conducted by the Suffolk County medical examiner determined that he died of cardiac arrest.

"They beat him, used weapons on an unarmed man and threw him to the curb," Fred Brewington, an attorney for Lazo's family, told the jury in his summation. "He died on a filthy floor of a dirty precinct. This is not who we are supposed to be."

During an hour-long closing argument, Brewington painted the five officers named in the multimillion-dollar lawsuit as callous and indifferent to Lazo's suffering, beating him with flashlights and their fists on the ramp to the Southern State Parkway in Bay Shore. He asked the jury to award Lazo's family nearly $50 million, including for physical and mental suffering, lost earnings, lost enjoyment of life and punitive damages.

In his closing argument, Marc Lindemann, an attorney representing the police, said the risk to officers that night was so severe, they had no choice during the "life-threatening" chain of events but to use whatever force deemed necessary.

"This was an emergency situation," Lindeman said of the incident, which started when police pulled over Lazo's Cadillac after suspecting he had just made a drug deal.

"They used force that was reasonable, appropriate and justified in this situation," he said.

The nearly three-week trial offered a rare inside look at alleged police brutality cases in the county and included testimony offering up competing portrayals of Lazo: a churchgoing, hardworking, devoted father, or an alleged drug dealer driving a blue Cadillac and having a history of domestic disputes with the mother of his 4-year-old son.

The lawsuit names Suffolk County and its police department as defendants, as well as the police officers involved in the altercation with Lazo.

The officers had stopped Lazo's vehicle after he allegedly made a drug sale and committed several traffic violations, including running a stop sign, speeding and failing to signal. 

Lindeman said Lazo was resistant and belligerent, striking one officer in the head with his elbow and reaching for an officer's service weapon. The officers, he said, were battling for their lives and used whatever was at their disposal to subdue Lazo, including flashlights. One cop, he said, even resorting to biting Lazo on the buttocks.

"This was a tense, uncertain, dangerous and rapidly changing situation," said Lindeman, noting that Lazo was found with bags of crack and cocaine in his possession, along with $2,000 in cash.

Brewington said the officers "fabricated" a reason to pull over Lazo, using their authority to beat and humiliate the suspect, stripping him of his clothes and shoes and pummeling him with weapons when he attempted to flee. A total of 36 injuries were found to his body, including head, neck, torso and extremities, Brewington said.

"They were on the hunt," Brewington said. "They were pumped up and ready for action … They knew it was wrong. They were dehumanizing Kenny Lazo on the side of the road."

The officers took Lazo to the nearby Third Precinct in Bay Shore, rather than a hospital. He walked in wearing only his underpants and socks, his shirt apparently ripped off during the altercation, the lawsuit states.

Lindeman said Lazo showed no signs at the time of "anything but superficial injuries … Not every paper cut, scratch or bruise should result in immediate hospitalization."

Lazo was found unresponsive on the floor of a holding cell at approximately 9 p.m. and pronounced dead at Southside Hospital 45 minutes later.

An autopsy conducted by the Suffolk County medical examiner determined that Lazo died from cardiac arrest “following exertion associated with prolonged physical altercation with multiple blunt impacts.” It also concluded that obesity was a factor in Lazo's death.

Police have contended they could not have known Lazo was going to suffer cardiac arrest.

Brewington has maintained that Lazo was a victim of "deadly force" and officers refused to bring him to the hospital because he had showed them "attitude." "They decided Kenny Lazo was a person without any rights. This was not police work. This was gang behavior. They had total disregard for Kenny Lazo's life," he said.

A Suffolk County grand jury declined to bring charges against the five officers while federal investigators reviewed Lazo's death but also declined to file charges. One officer, meanwhile, received a verbal reprimand for not bringing Lazo to the hospital, a violation of department protocol.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.