Kenny Lazo's wrongful death trial against Suffolk police heading to court 15 years after he died

The federal wrongful death case of a 25-year-old man who died while in Suffolk police custody in 2008 is heading to trial this month, 14 years after his family filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit alleging Suffolk County violated Kenny Lazo's civil rights.

Jury selection in the lawsuit, which seeks $55 million in damages and $100 million in punitive damages, is scheduled to begin July 24 in Central Islip. Lazo died on April 12, 2008, after Suffolk police officers arrested him following a traffic stop when they suspected him of drug dealing.

The civil lawsuit, filed by attorney Fred Brewington, alleges the county's top law-enforcement officials covered up a police assault that left a young father bruised, battered and dead. 

Suffolk police and prosecutors have said for years that the five officers named in the lawsuit as Lazo's assailants used necessary and justified force to subdue him.

The suit names the county and the police department as defendants, as well as the police officers it accuses of arresting and fatally beating Lazo: John Newton, James Scimone, William Judge, Christopher Talt and Joseph Link. Former Police Commissioner Richard Dormer, who died in 2019, is listed as a defendant.

No one was charged in the case, which has taken years to go to trial for a variety of reasons. The case was transferred from judge to judge, and one delay was caused by the death of a judge. The COVID-19 pandemic put the case on pause for more than two years. 

"Defendant officers Newton, Scimone, Judge, Talt and Link were reckless, careless and negligent in their actions in beating the plaintiffs' decedent with flashlights, and upon information and belief, other weapons; as a result, defendant officers killed Kenny Lazo," the lawsuit said. "Upon information and belief, at no time did plaintiffs' decedent act in a way which required the use of force or deadly physical force." 

Lawyer: 'They brutalized him'

Brewington, who represents the Lazo family, said, “They brutalized him ....” 

Suffolk police and prosecutors have said for years that the five officers named in the lawsuit as Lazo's assailants used necessary and justified force to subdue him.

Lazo threw an elbow at one of the officers who pulled over his car in Bay Shore, authorities said, and attempted to flee from police. Lazo reached for an officer’s gun after he was tackled by police, authorities said. Officers suspected Lazo — who they said had 28 packets of cocaine concealed in his clothing when he was arrested — completed a drug deal just before he was pulled over.

Even if all that is true, Brewington said during a recent interview at his office in Hempstead, Suffolk police didn't get to be “the jury, the judge ..."

Brewington said Lazo didn't get a chance to defend himself against the accusations after he was taken to the Third Precinct. “Most certainly, the police are going to try to justify what happened here by trying to taint the victim,” he said.

The lawsuit was filed in March 2009, almost a year after Lazo’s death, by the administrators of his estate: his mother, Patricia Gonzalez , and Jennifer Gonzalez, the mother of his now-adult son, Kenny Lazo Jr. 

Jennifer Gonzalez said police kept her in the dark after Lazo's death when she asked why they needed to use force. She said she didn't fully know what happened until the Suffolk County medical examiner ruled her son's death a homicide in an autopsy report more than two months later, on June 26, 2008.

"They didn't give a reason," Gonzalez said. "There was no explanation regarding what happened." 

Gonzalez said it was “heartbreaking” to see Lazo’s bruised and beaten body. 

“It made me angry. I didn’t understand why,” she said. “What went through my head was that it had to be something personal for these cops to do something like this to a man.”

Lazo's death led to demonstrations by members of Long Island's Latino community, many of whom complained at the time that they had been harassed by Suffolk police, who they said ignored reports when they had been attacked physically and verbally by anti-immigrant residents.

Two officers still with Suffolk police

Newton, Scimone and Link retired from the department, according to New York State pension records. Judge and Talt remain with the department.

Federal investigators reviewed Lazo's death but declined to file charges. Lazo was Latino and the officers white, which would have been a factor in a federal civil rights case, legal experts said at the time. Such cases are difficult because prosecutors must prove officers intended to violate Lazo's civil rights. 

Former District Attorney Thomas Spota, currently serving a 5-year sentence in a federal prison for leading a cover-up of the beating of a suspect by ex-Chief of Department James Burke, was dismissed as a defendant in 2019. Former Assistant District Attorney John B. Collins, now a Suffolk judge, also was dismissed from the case in 2019.

Suffolk police spokeswoman Dawn Schob, Suffolk County spokeswoman Marykate Guilfoyle and Suffolk Police Benevolent Association president Noel DiGerolamo all declined to comment, saying they could not discuss pending litigation.

Kenny Lazo Jr., a college student who will play basketball and study business management at SUNY Oswego in the fall, remembered his father was “fun and funny" and showered him with gifts at Christmas. Lazo Jr. was 5 years old when his father died. 

"He was like, 'You have to do well in school,' " Lazo Jr. said. "This is just in kindergarten."

Lazo Jr.  said he has learned not to judge individuals by their uniform, but he's always been uncomfortable around police. "I've always been afraid of them, in a sense," he said. "Kinda upset with them."

According to the lawsuit, officers stopped Lazo’s vehicle on a ramp to the Southern State Parkway in Bay Shore at about 8:15 p.m. on April 12, 2008. Court papers allege the officers beat Lazo with heavy flashlights on the side of the road, and then transported him to the Third Precinct in Bay Shore. The officers did not seek medical treatment for Lazo, Brewington said in the lawsuit, despite his injuries.

Lazo was found unresponsive and in underwear on the floor of a holding cell at approximately 9 p.m. At 9:25, he was taken to Southside Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9:45.

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.

An expert who reviewed the autopsy concluded that Lazo’s hands were cuffed behind his back and he was on his stomach for much of the incident, according to Brewington. 

Grand jury declines to bring charges

A Suffolk County grand jury declined to bring charges against the five officers in November 2008, seven months after Lazo’s death. Spota’s office issued a statement that said “necessary force was used” by the police. 

But many Latino residents of Suffolk wondered during that time if they could expect justice from its law-enforcement agents as the county's top-elected official, County Executive Steve Levy, made national headlines for anti-immigrant rhetoric and actions. 

During Levy’s tenure, police raided rooming houses and stopped drivers who looked like they had entered the country illegally, activists and civil rights advocates said. Scott Greene, a former Suffolk police sergeant, was sentenced to three years in prison after he was convicted in 2016 of shaking down Latino motorists for cash. 

Police continued to engage in discriminatory behavior even after the U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation into the Suffolk department following a fatal attack on an immigrant from Ecuador, Marcelo Lucero, in 2008 by a group of teens. Suffolk police officials in 2014 entered into an agreement with the Justice Department to reform its policies. They remain in place today.

Earlier this year, the county reached a settlement in a 2015 lawsuit filed by the civil rights group LatinoJustice that accused police of widespread discrimination. The agreement calls for the county to codify elements of the police reform plan adopted in 2021. 

Jennifer Gonzalez said she is happy her family will be able to show a jury a different Kenny Lazo than the criminal suspect described by police and prosecutors. 

"The cops portrayed him to be a drug dealer, or as a big gigantic macho man that they said they had to tackle down," Gonzalez said. "They already created an image. It's hard for us to change, and it's disheartening. Anybody who knew who Kenny was — what they portrayed him is, it's not who he is."