Suffolk County agree to settle suit by LatinoJustice charging police discrimination against Latinos

Suffolk reached a settlement on Monday in the 2015 lawsuit accusing its police department of widespread discrimination against Latinos, a deal that calls for the county to codify elements of the police reform plan adopted by lawmakers in 2021.

Such initiatives, most of which are already in place, include public disclosure of traffic stop data, creating precinct advisory boards, and equipping Suffolk police officers with body cameras. 

The agreement to settle the federal lawsuit filed by LatinoJustice, a Manhattan-based civil rights organization, will ensure that the reforms remain in place for at least three years after the settlement is approved by U.S. District Judge William F. Kuntz, even if a new county executive or police commissioner seeks to repeal them. 

“LatinoJustice believes if this agreement is approved by the court, it will provide increased transparency and accountability to the Suffolk County Police Department,” said Andrew Case, the organization’s supervising attorney. “It brings a lot of the reforms we are seeing nationwide to Suffolk County, and it gives them durability.”

The deal also calls for Suffolk to pay $75,000 each to 20 plaintiffs named in the lawsuit, according to Deputy County Executive Vanessa Baird-Streeter. The suit was originally brought on behalf of 21 Latino residents of Suffolk who were victims of race-based stops, detentions and other harassment, according to the 2015 complaint, but one dropped out before the agreement was reached. The payments must be approved by the county legislature. 

The settlement also requires the county to pay $2.25 million to the plaintiffs for attorneys’ fees. 

The defendants in the federal lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of New York include the county, the police department, former police commissioner Edward Webber and several individual officers, including then-lieutenant Milagros Soto, recently appointed the assistant chief of the Internal Affairs Bureau.

Another defendant, Scott A. Greene, a former Suffolk police sergeant, was accused of shaking down Latino motorists for cash, usually $100. A Suffolk jury convicted Greene of grand larceny and other charges in 2016, and he was sentenced to one to three years in prison. Greene is not a party to the agreement, according to papers filed with the court on Monday. 

“The county has settled with the plaintiffs who were targeted by Sgt. Greene and compensated them for their damages,” County Executive Steve Bellone said. “As for the injunctive relief contained in the class action settlement, we were already in the process of implementing these terms as part of the county’s police reform and reinvention plan adopted in April 2021, and we will continue to implement reforms supporting fair, just and equitable policing in Suffolk County.”

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney K. Harrison said in a statement: "The 2021 Suffolk County Police Reform and Reinvention plan addresses a large majority of the substantive terms of the agreement which we have implemented or are in the process of implementing.  Transparency in policing is of the utmost importance to enable public trust and we will continue to implement changes to provide equitable police services for all."

The settlement also calls Suffolk’s Human Rights Commission to take on a new oversight role of the police department’s internal affairs investigations. Bellone announced last week that the commission will begin accepting complaints about alleged police misconduct and begin its civilian oversight role this week. 

The county legislature in 2021 approved the Suffolk County Police Reform and Reinvention Task Force Report, a year after then-Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo mandated law enforcement agencies statewide submit police reform plans for passage by local legislatures or risk losing state funding weeks. That mandate followed George Floyd's 2020 murder by a Minneapolis police officer while in custody, a death that sparked months of nationwide protests over police killings.

“It’s incredibly meaningful to see a settlement that codifies the hard work we did as a task force to root out things that need to be changed,” said Serena Liguori, the executive director of New Hour for Women and Children, an agency that provides services to incarcerated women and was a member of the task force that drafted Suffolk’s reform plan. “This is a huge win and it will bring systemic change and long-term change.” 

Kuntz referred the county and LatinoJustice to mediation in March 2022, according to court papers, and the parties reached the agreement earlier this month. 

“Most if not all of this agreement has been implemented through the reform process, or will be implemented,” said Suffolk Police Benevolent Association president Noel DiGerolamo, who also served on the task force.

Many in Long Island's Latino community had long complained that they were the targets of harassment by Suffolk officials and police, who they said ignored reports when they had been harassed and attacked.

The LatinoJustice lawsuit said that police continued to engage in discriminatory behavior even after the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) launched an investigation into the Suffolk force in the wake of a fatal attack on an immigrant from Ecuador, Marcelo Lucero, in 2008 by a group of teens. Suffolk police officials eventually entered an agreement to reform its policies with DOJ in 2014. 

Atara Miller of Milbank LLP, a Manhattan law firm that joined in the lawsuit with LatinoJustice, said the plaintiffs wanted to ensure the reforms will continue even if DOJ ends its agreement with the department. They also wanted to guarantee the reforms won’t be repealed after Bellone, who is prohibited from running for re-election due to term limits and leaves office at the end of the year. 

“This ensures that the reforms will be implemented, with oversight and transparency,” Miller said. 

Kuntz certified the litigation as a class-action lawsuit in April 2021, which LatinoJustice lawyers said gave them leverage to push for policy reforms. The number of members of the class — individuals subjected to traffic or pedestrian stops since 2014 — exceeds 100,000, according to court papers.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Lois Bloom denied class-action status for monetary damages in 2021, saying it would be unwieldy to conduct hearings for thousands of individuals allegedly impacted by police misconduct.

Suffolk had taken steps in recent years to improve language access and recruit Latinos and other minorities to join the department. Baird-Streeter said there are currently 294 Latino police officers on Suffolk’s approximately 2,400 force, up from 197 in 2014. The department now has 215 bilingual officers, 192 of which speak Spanish. 

 The agreement calls for: 

— The creation of a “Precinct-Level Advisory Board” for Suffolk’s seven police precincts. The PLABs, which will include religious leaders and members of civic organizations, will aim to help police address community concerns, foster new relationships with community leaders, and establish clear lines of communication.

— Updated implicit-bias training that incorporates the department’s own traffic stop data.

— The collection of data about traffic and pedestrian stops that will be published on a quarterly basis. Officers will have to record the reason for a stop, the length of the stop, and actions taken by the officer and demographic information of those stopped. 

— Improved language access, including posting a Spanish-speaking aide at the Third Precinct in Bay Shore, except for the overnight shift, to ensure people can communicate with officers in their native language. 

— Investigators who conduct background checks for Suffolk police candidates to now be asked to determine if candidates have ever been involved with white supremacist organizations and hate groups. 

— Equipping officers with body cameras. Officers in five of the department’s seven precincts have already received the devices, Baird-Streeter said.