An ex-Playboy playmate stripped the city of a $1.2 million payout Tuesday after suing the cops for manhandling her.
Stephanie Adams a woman of 41 years old, won a $1.2 million dollars award for injuries she suffered in May 25, 2006 after Police attacked and assaulted her.
She said cops threw her to the ground at gunpoint after a crazy cab driver (Erik Darko) who called police and falsely told them that she “flashed vampire teeth” and was going to shoot him.
The crazy cab driver had his taxi license revoked after this incident had called bitch and slammed the door on her stomach.
The cab driver called police, and when they arrived, cops said, Adams refused their commands to get on her face.
She was wearing skintight jeans and a bare-midriff shirt, and that she immediately obeyed the cops commands and spread her arms wide to show she was unarmed.
Even though there was no way she could hide a goun on herself, Sgt. John Rajan decided to do a “controlled drop to the ground” (in other words to assault and subdue) .
He stupidly tells the jury “We didn’t know if she had a firearm,” but then he admitted that she “was wearing tight-fitting clothing, and there was no place to conceal a weapon.”
It seems it is routine for the NY Police sgt and other police to do “controlled drops” no matter the circumstances.
We all know police will continue to assault citizens and then just let the city deal with any of the consequences of paying out any faults found.
Police and their unions will do everything in their power to prevent being forced to be accountable to citizens and the community.
More details from the New York Daily News:
A Manhattan jury of four women and two men took 81/2 hours deliberating before tossing fistfuls of money at Miss November 1992, Stephanie Adams, 41, for the injuries she suffered in a 2006 scuffle with police.
The former Bunny’s tale was so compelling that jurors doled awarded her $385,000 more than her lawyer asked for.
Adams, the first openly lesbian Playmate, said cops threw her to the ground at gunpoint after a bizarre confrontation with a cabbie who falsely told them she “flashed vampire teeth” and was going to shoot him.
Adams got into it with the hack, Erik Darko, on Ninth Ave. after he refused to carry her clothing into her Chelsea apartment on May 25, 2006.
Darko, who had his taxi license yanked after the fracas, called her a “b—h” and slammed the door on her stomach.
The cabbie called police, and when they arrived, cops said, Adams refused their commands to get on her face.
She says she was wearing skintight jeans and a bare-midriff shirt, and that she immediately obeyed the cops’ commands and spread her arms wide to show she was unarmed.
Sgt. John Rajan told the jury he made a “controlled drop to the ground” to subdue the centerfold. “We didn’t know if she had a firearm,” he testified.
Read entire article, click link above.
- Accountability
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The city will appeal, she won’t get anything for years…
Thanks, I assumed it would be cash on the spot.
Common Sense,
On what grounds will the city appeal?
First off its a jury award, those are tough nuts to crack on appeal, as judges are very wary to over turn a jury award.
Next the losing party in a decision by a trial court is not entitled to appeal simply because they don’t like the ruling. They must clearly show that the trial court made a legal error that affected the decision in the case.
I know this case and its award infuriates you because the cops lost…
Sorry, bout all I can offer you on this one.
Cops screwed up here and justice prevailed here.
@WhenTennesseePigsFly;
On what grounds do U.S. corporations appeal….over and over and over again ad nauseum if a wronged victim or their family refuses a protracted “settlement”? Standard practice to bully the victim into waiting years for full punitive/actual/exemplary damages, well, except for enough “up front” to pay their lawyer.
Here’s an example of what happens if you don’t make the proper “contributions” to the powers-that-be.
http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/law-enforcement-corruption–abuse/the-great-gibson-guitar-raidmonths-later-still-no-charges-filed-.html
I will clarify, the city ‘has the ability to appeal’ and I would appeal the amount as ‘excessive’ – she’s sustained no life long injury, no debilitating condition (married now with a child) so that would be first, if the case had merit, they would have settled. The jury awarded her ‘sympathy money.’
“Sympathy money”? Figures of authority assaulted, violated her civil rights her. I would sway more to punative/exemplary. Hoping, of course to send a message to the city that they might want to reconsider their choice for cop commissioner or chief…possibly saying in abstract, get rid of the fool running these dogs.
Were the cops charged with a crime? Were they term’d? Were they reprimanded? That would be my argument if/when there is another trial.
You know that happens so EXTREMELY rarely as to approach zero, so don’t be cute, badgelicker.
paschn,
Corporations appeal civil awards on the same grounds. They must show that legal errors were made by the trial court.
When you have a 1,000 lawyers on staff as some larger corporations do. And they are backed by an army of research assistants and para-legals its not at all hard to see how they can keep a case tied up in court for years.
Attorneys in private practice be a they criminal or civil trial attorneys all have multiple clients at anyone time. And many have more than one trial ongoing at any given time.
If we could dedicate 100% of our time, energy and resources to cases on a individual basis, we’d win every single one of them.
And to Common Sense,
The awarded amount is not excessive by anyones standards… okay maybe yours cuz your a cop, and think that cops can do no wrong.
But back to reality…
Every state has well established rules in place which guides judges in “excessive rulings”. Most of these rules are set up in ratio matrix format. Where the judge can quickly add up all the scoring facts and deduce if the award is excessive or not, within a matter of a few minutes. So can the lawyers.
Jurors use a simplified form of this ratio to guide them when considering any award. Thats how some awards end up being oddball figures like $274,000 or $312,000 and not well rounded ones, like $100,000 or $1,000,000
The standard for reviewing punitive damages awards also differs from the standard for reviewing compensatory damages.
Generally punitive damages award with a ratio equal to or greater than 10-1 when compared to compensatory damages almost certainly violates the Due Process Clause.
So looking at her award she received, basing it on the current accepted standard which was put in place by the US Supreme Court her award isn’t even close to being excessive.
Im sure if you and I were arguing about excessive fines you’d be on the other side of the coin.
Once again, NOcommonsense is doing his job as police protector by allowing that “once again, the poLICE were right and anybody who disagrees with this Gestapo agent is ready for the looney bin.
I just don’t understand why Nocommonsense doesn’t just to go the local cop shop, crawl under the commanders desk and try to recreate the stains on the blue dress
I just read the City will file an appeal. I hope she doesn’t sign for any car loans just yet. Its been nearly 6 years, so time is on the City’s side. Just the way it works.
@paschn
It’s my understanding that the Lacey Act violation was about finish because bugs can’t survive the finishing process and Gibson was importing unfinished wood.
I agree it’s pretty stupid, however Gibson had been made aware that they were in violation and decided to force the issue. Their only option was to lobby for alternative methods (screening or some chemical treatment to prevent the transfer of wood.
Gibson does not make a lot of guitars (~$1600 price tags) but they are ultra-high quality USA made. I’m with Gibson on this, but disagree with how they handled it. Their way of stirring the pot to get the stupid regulation taken care of was to force the government’s hand in raiding them, and the government’s delays are in response. It’s a huge mess and the media will never cover it to the extent needed to allow Gibson to truly prevail.