Lazo verdict must lead to change in Suffolk

The recent $35 million jury award against Suffolk County for the alleged police beating death of Kenny Lazo, an unarmed father pulled over by cops during a 2008 traffic stop, is yet another disturbing consequence of what County Executive Steve Bellone has called “a culture of corruption” that has existed in the department for far too long.

The Aug. 10 wrongful death decision followed a three-week trial of dramatic testimony revealing how Lazo, then 24, of Bay Shore, was repeatedly struck by arresting officers who then failed to seek medical treatment for his injuries. The jury’s award — $13.5 million in compensatory damages and $21.5 million in punitive damages — upheld the contention of Lazo’s family that police and county officials conducted a sham investigation of his death to avoid accountability.

“The failure to properly train, retrain and/or discipline officers directly led to this unfortunate situation,” the jury’s forewoman told Newsday. “Our hope is that actual change comes from this verdict.” 

Those words should be ringing in all of our ears.

At trial, Suffolk County argued that police stopped Lazo after he made a drug sale and committed several traffic violations. A Suffolk grand jury declined to bring charges against five officers, as did federal investigators who reviewed the case in 2009. But the jury clearly agreed with Frederick K. Brewington, attorney for the Lazo family, who said police “fabricated” a reason for the arrest and repeated beating of Lazo, who Brewington said suffered 36 injuries across his body. 

FEW DISCIPLINARY PENALTIES

The evidence in the Lazo trial reflects many of the problems outlined in Newsday’s 2022 Inside Internal Affairs investigation, which revealed that Suffolk police often imposed little or no penalties in disciplinary cases involving serious injuries or deaths.

During the Lazo trial, one Suffolk police detective named as a defendant testified that Internal Affairs never interviewed him before clearing him of allegations of false arrest and excessive force. Another detective — subject to more than 20 previous civilian complaints — also testified that he was never interviewed by Internal Affairs. Clearly the damaged credibility of the SCPD helped result in the enormous amount of punitive damages. 

These trial revelations are the latest in a legacy of shameful instances of corruption and wrongdoing by Suffolk law enforcement officials during the past several decades, underlined by the felony convictions of both former longtime District Attorney Tom Spota and Police Chief James Burke, who was appointed by Bellone.

Ultimately, the question is what taxpayers and responsible public officials are going to do about this long-running abuse of the public trust. Surely, we want our police to combat all forms of crime and protect public safety, recognizing the dangers inherent in that sometimes thankless task. 

Yet at the same time, Long Islanders pay extraordinarily high taxes for well-compensated police represented by politically powerful unions. At the very least, we should expect that they are equally well-trained and professional enough to avoid violent scenarios like Lazo’s death that a jury found so repugnant. 

NEED BETTER OVERSIGHT

No matter what excuses may be offered, we need fair and open-eyed management by elected officials to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. In May, Newsday reported that $165 million has been paid out by Long Island taxpayers since 2000 because of police wrongdoing in serious cases, some involving death. The Lazo verdict helped push that figure to over $200 million in total, with other serious pending lawsuits against police waiting in the wings.

Bellone indicates the county will appeal this $35 million award, but instead he should be directing the county attorney’s office to seek a settlement with the Lazo family at much lower cost to taxpayers.

In Nassau, taxpayers were asked to pay a whopping $43 million jury award after an unsuccessful 2018 appeal by the Laura Curran administration to the U.S. Supreme Court in another case of police wrongdoing. Since then County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a strong defender of police, has nevertheless said in the future he will seek settlements in cases when there is clear evidence of police misdeeds.

There are other measures that should be taken by Suffolk. Instead of approving payouts with little or no review, the Suffolk legislature should provide greater oversight of law enforcement starting with hearings that examine systemic problems that contribute to police wrongdoing and determine why the Internal Affairs unit has looked the other way. Taxpayers should insist that police follow proper rules and guidelines, but also that legislators provide oversight. 

Given the jury’s determination, Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison should review the Lazo matter to judge how Internal Affairs and other top department overseers handled this case and make sure this never happens again.

The case of Kenny Lazo — and so many others wronged by Suffolk law enforcement over the years — demand nothing less than this form of public justice.