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A jury in Brooklyn awarded more than $500,000 to a man who sued the city after he suffered a broken ankle during an arrest for shoplifting.
The jury awarded Kevin Jarman $510,000 on Wednesday for the injury.
Jarman, 50, filed the suit after pleading guilty to shoplifting at a Queens Pathmark in 2011.
In the shoplift case, Jarman claimed that Sgt. Samuel Morales approached him inside Pathmark after a store clerk reported a theft.
Morales “appeared to be afraid of Plaintiff because of his size” before slapping on handcuffs but quickly turned nasty once he was safely shackled,” said the suit.
Jarman told Morales to loosen the cuffs, but the cop yanked on them instead and caused him to tumble over, according to court papers.
“Sergeant Morales, in effect, tripped Plaintiff,” the suit stated.
Morales and another officer laughed and threatened to post footage of the incident, according to the suit.
Jarman spent nine days in Jamaica Hospital.
It took jurors just a few hours to deliver Wednesday’s shocking windfall verdict.
“This shows that a regular person who has his rights violated can still go to court and do something,” Jarman’s lawyer, Anthony Ofodile, said.
The New York Post says it’s not the first payout Jarman has received from the city.
In 2005, he sued the NYPD for false arrest after a drug sale charge was dropped. The city settled for $15,000.
Then last month the city settled for $20,000 after Jarman sued police for false arrest in another drug case.
Agencies/Canadajournal
