$3M thrashing
Jury award for vic of ’14 cop stomp seen by son
A 27-YEAR-OLD Brooklyn man who says he turned to the police for help — only to get badly beaten by a trio of cops in front of his young son — has been awarded $3 million by a federal jury, the Daily News has learned.
Thomas Jennings says that as the son of a police officer — his now-deceased dad, Levi, retired from the Housing Police Department in 1987, according to his widow — he has respect for what they do, but that what happened to him was flat-out wrong.
“I don’t have no problems with police officers,” Jennings told The News. “I have so much love for them because my father was a cop. You have good cops but you also have some bad ones out there. They were supposed to be there for me, to help me.
“I just don’t understand how things like this happen to innocent people.”
Jennings has been in a prolonged custody and visitation battle with the mother of his son, also named Levi, now 7.
On April 23, 2014, he picked up Levi at day care and headed to the boy’s mother’s apartment on Fulton St. in Bedford-Stuyvesant so he could get clothes for the boy to wear while staying at his place.
But the mother, Jenning’s estranged girlfriend, attacked him, striking him in the head, at which point he called police, according to his lawyer, Amy Rameau.
Jennings tried to explain to the officers what happened, showing them court documents detailing his visitation rights.
But the police apparently sided with the girlfriend, who contended Jennings was violating an order of protection.
At that point, one cop, Officer Amber LaGrandier, pulled Levi from Jennings’ arms, with another, Officer Andrew Yurkiw attacking Jennings.
“He sucker-punched my client, with a tremendous amount of force,” Rameau said.
The panicked child saw three cops beat his dad.
“The other officers joined in and punched and kicked and stomped him,” she said. all
Jennings at some point passed out but remembers Levi “screaming and crying ‘Daddy! Daddy!’ ”
The charges against Jennings — criminal contempt and assaulting a police officer — were later dismissed, and Jennings sued.
On Friday, after a fourday trial, the jury awarded Jennings $3 million, $2.5 million of it in punitive damages.
“The jury didn’t believe a word the officers had to say,” Rameau said. “They fabricated evidence in order to gain an advantage.”
Jennings said he is glad justice was served but that his son still sees a therapist from the trauma of the incident.
A spokesman for the city’s Law Department said it respects the verdict but disagrees with it “as a matter of law” and that it is considering whether to appeal.
The NYPD referred questions for comment to the city’s corporation counsel.