Suit claims excessive force by police
Greene County man says attack by officers left him with permanent pain and PTSD
A Greene County man has filed a federal lawsuit that claims he was assaulted by Saugerties police officers who provoked and attacked him during a road-rage incident last year.
In the lawsuit, filed in July in federal court in New York’s Northern District, Johndrue Mabb, 59, claims Officers James Mullen and Ryan Hampel used excessive force against him, causing him permanent pain, and violated his constitutional rights. Mabb also claims that, as a result of the encounter, he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.
The lawsuit does not specify an amount of monetary damages Mabb is seeking in the lawsuit, which also names the town of Saugerties, Police Chief Joseph Sinagra and the Ulster Regional Gang Enforcement Team (URGENT), among others, as respondents.
According to the lawsuit, on July 25, 2017, Mabb was sitting in his vehicle at a traffic light on Partition Street in the village of Saugerties when a Dodge Durango stopped about 6 inches from vehicle. The suit states that Mabb, “finding that the vehicle was too close to his rear bumper,” moved forward about 3 feet, but the Durango again moved forward, coming, again, within inches of Mabb’s vehicle. Mabb then moved his vehicle forward again, and, looking into the rear-view mirror, saw the two men “smiling at him while continuing to move the SUV within inches of plaintiff’s vehicle,” the lawsuit states.
“A reasonable person would have felt threatened” by those actions, the suit states, adding that
Mabb did not know that the two men, later identified as Mullen and Hampel, were Saugerties police officers working on a detail for URGENT.
The lawsuit states the two officers continued to tailgate Mabb, who at one point reached into the back of his vehicle and moved a baseball bat to the front passenger seat.
According to the lawsuit, upon seeing Mabb with the bat, Hampel gestured with his hands toward Mabb, “as if inviting ... a fight.”
When Mabb drove through a yellow light in an attempt to get away from the vehicle, the two officers ran a red light and turned on the police lights in the unmarked vehicle’s grill and visor, the lawsuit states.
At that point, the suit states, Mabb called 911 and reported that he was being followed.
“I don’t know if it’s a police officer, because I can’t tell who’s on my back right now,” the suit quotes Mabb as telling a 911 operator. “He was tailgating me and I moved up to get him off me, and then he threatened me to come do these things. And now he’s got his lights on, and I don’t know who he is. I don’t know what he’s doing.”
According to the lawsuit, when Mabb stopped at another traffic light, the two officers pulled in front of his vehicle and exited their vehicle with guns drawn.
Mullen then yanked Mabb from his vehicle, threw Mabb against his vehicle and attempted to handcuff him, the suit alleges.
Although Mabb attempted to tell officers that he couldn’t move his left arm backward, due to a disability, the two continued to try to pull his arm back, while mocking him and threatening to “knock you the f*** out” and to tase him, according to Mabb’s lawsuit.
Mabb was arrested and charged with criminal possession of a weapon, menacing and traffic infractions. Those charges were dropped on July 27, 2018.
According to the lawsuit, as a result of the actions of Mullen and Hampel, Mabb suffered injuries and pain that will last the rest of his life.
Also named in the suit are the URGENT board of directors, Ulster County District Attorney Holley Carnright, county Sheriff Paul Van Blarcum, URGENT board members Daniel Waage and William Wesihaupt, and other unidentified Saugerties police officers and URGENT members.
Sinagra, Mullen and Hampel could not be reached for comment Monday.
Mabb’s attorney, Carlo A.C. de Oliveria, of the Albany firm Cooper, Erving & Savage, did not respond to a reporter’s email.