Federal jury awards more than $2.3M to Robert Besedin Sr., of Baldwin, who accused 2 Nassau officers of assaulting him outside his home in 2017

A federal jury in Brooklyn awarded more than $2.3 million on Wednesday to an Air Force veteran from Long Island who alleged two Nassau County police officers threw him down concrete stairs during an assault outside his Baldwin home in 2017.

Robert Besedin Sr., now 79, alleged in the lawsuit filed in 2018 that Nassau officers Stephen Beckwith and Dominick Mantovani violated his civil rights by falsely arresting and maliciously prosecuting him during the Feb. 7, 2017 incident. Nassau County and Nassau police failed to properly train or supervise the officers, the complaint said.

The alleged assault, Hempstead-based attorney Fred Brewington told the jury in opening remarks, exacerbated a traumatic brain injury Besedin suffered in 2003, making it difficult for him to maintain relationships with family members or operate his auto repair shop.

Besedin, upset about the theft of his tools during a burglary at his shop, called police numerous times that day, Brewington told the jury in his opening remarks. Beckwith and Mantovani responded to Besedin’s home three times, testifying at trial that they told him he would be arrested if he did not stop harassing 911 operators.

Besedin mocked the officer and Nassau police for failing to solve the burglary before Beckwith and Mantovani threw him off his porch, Brewington told jurors. Besedin was charged with second-degree assault, harassment and resisting arrest. The Nassau County District Attorney’s Office dismissed the case nearly one year later.

"They both put their hands on the back of my neck and flung me headfirst to the ground," Besedin testified last week. "One said to the other, ‘Should we do it again? Do you think he had enough pain?’"

Andrew Brancato, the attorney representing the police and the county, said there was no excessive force or false arrest. He told the jurors in his closing arguments that Beckwith and Mantovani showed restraint through much of the incident despite Besedin’s insults.

"These guys are not walking handcuffs," Brancato told the jury in his closing remarks. He said Beckwith and Mantovani had probable cause to arrest Besedin, he said, for harassing 911 operators and for slapping Beckwith’s hand.

Brancato said the officers were permitted to use "reasonable force" to handcuff Besedin after he resisted arrest. He said Beckwith and Mantovani had been preparing to leave after speaking to Besedin inside the home, but Besedin stepped outside onto his porch and continued to "reengage" with them.

Brewington told the jury during his closing statement that Beckwith and Mantovani arrested Besedin because he had been verbally abusive, and because the arrest gave them the opportunity to earn overtime pay. Beckwith had joined the Nassau County Police Department shortly before the incident, and Besedin was his first arrest.

Beckwith and Mantovani testified last week that they arrested Besedin because he was harassing 911 operators and had slapped Beckwith’s hand when the officer put his finger near Besedin’s face and ordered him back into his home. The officers said they ordered Besedin to turn around and put his hands behind his back so they could handcuff him, but Besedin instead pushed off the front of his home and propelled all three of them off the porch.

The officers did not know the incident was recorded by a security camera on Besedin’s porch, Brewington told jurors. Mantovani testified that he did not throw Besedin off the porch, but the video, shown to the jury numerous times throughout the trial, seemed to contradict the officer’s account.

The video is dark, grainy and does not include audio. Beckwith and Besedin are off camera for much of the incident, Brancato told the jury.

Beckwith wrote in a felony complaint that Besedin had violently flailed his arms, kicked and screamed before he pushed Mantovani down the four steps leading to the porch of his Harrison Avenue home. The felony complaint said Mantovani was treated at a hospital for scrapes, cuts and a sprained ankle. The allegations in the felony complaint were contradicted by Mantovani himself, who testified that he "hopped" down the stairs and was not pushed by Besedin.

Brewington said there is nothing in the video that suggests the officers ordered Besedin to turn around to be handcuffed, or that he had propelled himself and the two police officers off the porch.

"They helped to break Mr. Besedin," Brewington said in his closing. "They made him something he was not before they had their hands on him."