Kenny Lazo case: Suffolk wants $35M verdict reversed, court papers show

An attorney for Suffolk County asked a federal judge on Wednesday to reverse the $35 million verdict awarded in August to the family of a Bay Shore man who died after he was beaten by police officers following a 2008 traffic stop. 

In court papers filed in the Eastern District of New York, attorney Marc Lindemann said the evidence presented during the trial of a lawsuit filed by the family of Kenny Lazo was not sufficient to justify the verdict and the $13.5 million in compensatory damages and $21.5 million in punitive damages the jury awarded Lazo’s family were excessive.

“The compensatory damages awarded were unconscionably high and improperly disproportionate to the alleged injuries for which the jury ostensibly awarded them … The punitive damages awarded were grossly disproportionate,” wrote Lindemann, who represented the county, its police department and five former or current Suffolk police officers during a three-week trial this summer.

The five officers named as defendants enjoyed qualified immunity from such lawsuits, according to the motion. Lindemann also argued that U.S. Magistrate Judge Steve L. Tiscione prejudiced the case by denying the defendants’ motion to schedule a trial for the five officers first and a trial for the county and the Suffolk County Police Department after that. Evidence of previous misconduct by officers would be admissible in a case involving the police department and the county but would be barred if the claims against the officers were tried separately. Trying the officers with the county and department, Lindemann argued, unnecessarily prejudiced the jury. 

Lindemann asked Tiscione to order a new trial if the judge declines to reverse the verdict. 

Fred Brewington, the Hempstead-based civil rights attorney who represented Lazo’s estate at the trial, declined to comment on Lindemann’s filing. Marykate Guilfoyle, a spokeswoman for Suffolk County, said she could not comment on pending litigation. 

The civil 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.

Lazo’s family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the county and its police department in 2009, arguing that Suffolk police falsely arrested the 24-year-old unarmed father on April 12, 2008, and beat him with their fists and heavy flashlights on a ramp to the Southern State Parkway. A total of 36 injuries were found on his body, including head, neck, torso and extremities, Brewington said during his closing.

The officers failed to seek medical treatment for Lazo after he was beaten, the plaintiffs argued, and Suffolk police and county officials conducted sham investigations to avoid accountability. 

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.

Officials said the officers stopped Lazo’s blue Cadillac after they watched him participate in a drug transaction, and that he was combative when they tried to take him into custody. They said Lazo tried to flee and had grabbed for an officer’s gun as vehicles sped nearby on the busy parkway. 

In his closing statement, Lindemann 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. 

The jury rejected that argument and took the unusual step of asking Tiscione if they could make a statement after they reached the verdict. Tiscione declined but told the jurors that they were free to speak to the media after they left the Central Islip courthouse. 

“Upon review of the evidence, we the jury feel strongly that the policies and practices of the Suffolk County Police Department should be better enforced to protect and serve the community,” the jury forewoman told Newsday on Aug. 11, shortly after the verdict was announced. “The failure to properly train, retrain and/or discipline officers directly led to this unfortunate situation. Our hope is that actual change comes from this verdict.”

 Suffolk County also recently agreed to a $1.7 million settlement with Steven Kelly, a Patchogue man who was shot in 2018 by an off-duty officer who mistook him for a robbery suspect, federal court records show. In August, The county paid $500,000 to settle a federal lawsuit brought by Steven McCune of Commack, a construction worker who said police brutally beat him during a 2012 altercation in a union hall parking lot.