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

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

In reaching the verdict in a case stemming from a civil rights violations lawsuit filed in 2018 by Robert Besedin Sr., jurors found one officer was liable for using excessive force and that Nassau was liable for battery committed by officers employed by the county.

The jury also ruled that Nassau police officers Stephen Beckwith and Dominick Mantovani maliciously prosecuted Robert Besedin Sr. and abused the judicial process after arresting him on Feb. 7, 2017, outside his Hamilton Avenue home. Jurors found that Mantovani had used excessive force when he threw Besedin down the stairs and onto a concrete path.

The jury’s award includes $760,000 in compensatory damages and $1.6 million in punitive damages. Besedin’s attorney, Frederick K. Brewington, said the punitive damages should prompt Nassau officials to improve policing in the county. Besedin was not in court as the jurors reached the verdict on day eight of the trial.

"They need to do better, better with regard to their training, better with regard to their investigations and clearly better in regard to their discipline," Brewington said. "These officers, after doing this, suffered no discipline, they suffered no training, and that is just unacceptable."

Attorneys Andrew Brancato and Kiera Meehan, who represented Nassau County, the officers and the department in the lawsuit, declined to comment after the verdict. A spokesman for Nassau police declined to comment. A representative of Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman did not respond to requests for comment.

Beckwith and Mantovani testified that they had been questioned by the Internal Affairs Bureau, and that IAB investigators had not reviewed video of the incident recorded by Besedin’s home security system with them.

"There is a real lack of accountability of policing in Nassau County, and we know that because this Internal Affairs investigation was a sham," Brewington said. "There was a video that was never shown to the officers to make them explain what they did. They took their word on face value."

The jury ruled that Besedin’s lawyers had not proven that Beckwith had used excessive force during the encounter or that either officer had falsely arrested Besedin.

Besedin, now 79, alleged in the lawsuit that Beckwith and Mantovani violated his civil rights during the incident. Nassau County and Nassau police failed to properly train or supervise the officers, the complaint said.

The alleged assault, Brewington told the jury in opening and closing 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.

Both sides agreed that Besedin, upset about the theft of his tools during a burglary at his shop, called police numerous times that day. 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.

Before he was arrested, according to testimony, Besedin mocked Beckwith and Nassau police for failing to solve the burglary. 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.

During the trial, Mantovani denied throwing Besedin off the porch, but the video contradicted his testimony. Mantovani is seen propelling Besedin off the porch, Brewington said.

Brewington told the jury in his opening remarks that the officers did not know that the incident had been recorded until after Besedin had been charged. "Had there been no video, there would have been no case, but the video vindicated Mr. Besedin," Brewington said.

Brancato argued in his opening and closing statements that there was no excessive force or false arrest. He told the jurors that Beckwith and Mantovani showed restraint through much of the incident despite Besedin’s insults. The officers had probable cause to make the arrest because Besedin had harassed 911 operators and slapped Beckwith’s hand when the officer stuck his finger in Besedin’s face and ordered him to return to his home.

The officers testified that 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.

Newsday investigated Besedin's arrest in 2021 during an examination into how civilian video recordings were used to evaluate police actions during a time when Nassau and Suffolk police were two of the few major departments that did not equip most officers with body cameras. Nassau began equipping officers with body cameras in 2021. Suffolk rolled out its body camera program in 2022.