NEW HAVEN — A federal jury Monday awarded an unprecedented $5 million in punitive damages to a city police officer who was suspended by his former chief in a case that began as a run-of-the-mill noise complaint at a Fair Haven church and turned into a political conflagration.
The eight-person jury gave Officer Arpad Tolnay $903.84 in lost wages for his suspension and $150,000 for emotional distress.
But it was the $5 million in punitive damages that shocked nearly everyone in the courtroom, City Hall and in legal circles.
"It is to my mind the largest civil rights verdict in state history," said Norman A Pattis, a prominent lawyer from Greater New Haven. "It’s unprecedented, to my knowledge, not just for the city, but for the state," said New Haven Corporation Counsel Thomas W. Ude. The city will move to have the verdict overturned, or at the very least reduced, he said.
"The jurors were justly outraged at seeing a dedicated officer just doing his job used as a political scapegoat," said Karen Torre, Tolnay’s attorney.
The jury deliberated over two days in U.S. District Court after five days of testimony that included some current and past big hitters of New Haven politics, including Mayor John DeStefano Jr., Police Chief Francisco Ortiz Jr. and former Police Chief Melvin Wearing, who retired in 2003.
Tolnay said he was gratified that the truth was finally out about what really happened to him.
"I’m just happy that everybody can know that, at least in a court of law, what happened to me was wrong," Tolnay said.
Derek Slap, the mayor’s spokesman, had a different take. He said the verdict sends a terrible message that a subordinate can walk out of a meeting with his boss, get disciplined for it, file a lawsuit and win millions.
"This is an outrageous sum of money," said Slap. The city owes it to the taxpayers to work to get it reduced, he said.
The two de facto stars of the case, the Revs. Daniel Rodriguez and Armando Hernandez, were never called to testify. Both had close ties with DeStefano.
They were arrested July 26, 2002, after a loud revival service at the Second Star of Jacob Church in Fair Haven. Police were sent there twice and found large concert-sized speakers blasting music out of the church windows. Hernandez was arrested for breach of peace after he refused to turn down the volume, and for inciting parishioners into a near mob, police said.
Rodriguez was charged with interfering with police when he showed up and demanded to get arrested, too.
In the ensuing two weeks, DeStefano went to the church to apologize; Wearing visited Superior Court to meet with the prosecutor, who then dropped the charges; and the ministers organized a march on police headquarters.
Meanwhile, Tolnay had made it clear that he believed the whole ordeal was politicized. Wearing suspended Tolnay for 10 days, later reduced to five, for insubordination after the officer walked out of a meeting about the arrests.
After the verdict was read and the jury left, Wearing left the courthouse with his lawyers. "I’ve had better days," he said.
"Obviously we’re disappointed," said Wearing’s attorney, Robert A. Rhodes, who was hired by the city to assist in Wearing’s defense. "We can’t really say much else about it right now."
Whether the $5 million will stand remains to be seen. Pattis and John R. Williams, another New Haven lawyer, said the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals may well reduce the verdict.
It’s not uncommon for a trial judge or appeals court to reduce a punitive award if it is more than five times the compensatory award, meaning the $5 million could be reduced to $750,000 or $1 million, Pattis and Williams said.
But Torre said that in one case the court upheld a punitive award that was 20 times the compensatory amount, so nothing is for certain.
"We’ll be filing motions for the judge to set aside or reduce the judgment or for a new trial, Ude said. "Our counsel already is working on those arguments."
In the 2005-06 budget, the city set aside $2.5 million for litigation settlement and less than half of it remains, said City Controller Mark Pietrosimone.
While the city has insurance to cover litigation awards, typically it would not apply to punitive damages, city officials said.
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