Questions on private eye, lawyer, cop
who said Terrell had been involved in their own false arrests. He also located crime victims who claimed they were intimidated into fingering Hernandez or another innocent suspect.
The law firm belonging to Hernandez’s civil attorney John Scola is now representing 22 clients who say they have been harassed by Terrell; another 42nd Precinct detective, Daniel Brady, or other cops in the precinct.
So far, Scola’s firm has filed 10 lawsuits involving Terrell and two notices of claim — the first step in suing the city.
In one federal lawsuit, filed July 31, Kenny Shenery said he was rolling dice with his friends on a Bronx streetcorner when Terrell falsely arrested him.
Terrell then bizarrely pledged to free Shenery if he lost a game of dice — but then reneged on the offer after losing, according to the suit. Terrell then harassed Shenery about Hernandez, the charges.
In another case, Terrell was accused of promising a Bronx mom her son would be protected from arrest in exchange for sex. In yet another case, he was accused of beating up a teen, Anthony Floyd, in a failed effort to extract information about guns.
Since 2005, Terrell has also been sued at least seven times by plaintiffs represented by lawyers other than Scola. Of those cases, three were dismissed, two remain open and two were settled. In the two settlements, the city agreed to suit pay one plaintiff $45,000 and another plaintiff $25,000.
The NYPD placed Terrell on modified duty in the fall after an off-duty domestic incident, according to sources. The Bronx DA’s Public Integrity Bureau is also investigating the allegations against Terrell and the 42nd Precinct.
Michael Palladino, the president of the Detectives’ Endowment Association, defended the work of his members in the 42nd Precinct, saying they have been unfairly cast as bad guys by the lawyers of gang members. He described the onslaught of lawsuits as a cheap tactic.
“Filing a lawsuit and seeking publicity on it is all part of a defense attorney’s desperate strategy designed to persuade potential jurors and defuse the case against their client before it goes to trial,” Palladino said.
Indeed, questions linger about Scola and Gomez.
The legal team
Scola’s client list has grown sizably as Gomez — his frequent collaborator — has identified more alleged victims of false arrests and police intimidation.
Scola told The News that Gomez doesn’t work for his law firm. He said he provides legal advice when the private eye has questions involving the kids he identifies.
“If there is an action to pursue, I then sign those clients up,” Scola said.
In a peculiar arrangement, Scola’s firm also represents Nardoni, the shooting victim in the current criminal case against Hernandez. Nardoni retained Scola’s firm after giving Gomez a written affidavit and videotaped statement that he never saw his shooter.
The shooting victim says in his suit against the city that Terrell threatened to kick and punch him if he didn’t identify Hernandez as the gunman.
Scola’s unusual ties don’t end there.
The lawyer also reps the witness who identified Hernandez — meaning that Scola counts as civil clients the suspect, the victim and the key witness in the same crime.
In a notice of claim filed by Scola, Bronx teen William Stevens said Slott, the prosecutor, threatened to send detectives from the 42nd Precinct to arrest him if he didn’t identify Hernandez as the shooter in the Nardoni shooting.
Stevens said he was left with no other choice than to falsely identify Hernandez as the triggerman.
Eugene O’Donnell, a former prosecutor and professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said a civil attorney representing an accused criminal defendant, the crime victim and a witness in lawsuits isn’t necessarily wrong, but “it’s thin-ice territory.”
It becomes even trickier when private investigators are involved and there is a potential financial gain at play — like winning a legal settlement from the city, he said.
Scola insisted there is no conflict of interest in representing Hernandez and Nardoni.
“I could see a conflict of interest if I was a criminal lawyer,” Scola said. “The civil cases, just because they all have similar stories against the same detective, doesn’t mean that they’re all lying. The facts are very similar for all of them.”
Scola and Gomez, the private investigator, have known each other since at least 2013, when the attorney repped Gomez in a lawsuit against the NYPD claiming wrongful termination over the incident with his then-girlfriend. Gomez lost the suit, but has appealed.
Scola and his law firm partner, Chukwuemeka Nwokoro, are representing Gomez in a lawsuit he brought this year against unions who he says defamed him on their social media pages. Gomez said he is paying the firm for its representation.
But Palladino said one should wonder why Gomez is the common denominator in all of these lawsuits.
“I am not impressed with Gomez and his tactics,” he said. “He has a checkered past with the NYPD, and I think his motives and his credibility are very questionable.”