$1.25M FOR EYE
City to pay woman who lost vision in rough Bx. nab
The city has agreed to pay $1.25 million to a Bronx woman who accused a cop of blinding her by gouging her eye out with a handcuff key — even though the NYPD absolved the cop of any wrongdoing, the Daily News has learned.
The payout ends a two-year saga that began when Johanna PaganAlomar was arrested June 7, 2018, after she asked Officers Theresa Lustica and Konti Markvukaj why they were handcuffing her friend.
Lustica can be seen on video waving a bag she said contained heroin in front of Pagan-Alomar. Moments later, Pagan-Alomar tapped Lustica
on her back, not shoving the cop off balance as the officer said in court papers, as the friend was being lead to the patrol car.
Lustica spun around and scuffled with Pagan-Alomar, the two of them then falling out of the video’s frame. PaganAlomar, then 45, said the officer punched her in the face
while holding a handcuff key. Her left eye was knocked out of its socket and doctors couldn’t save it.
The NYPD stood by Lustica, saying it could not confirm the handcuff key allegation and that Lustica used force that was “neither excessive nor unnecessary.”
Charges of assault, harassment and obstruction against Pagan-Alomar, a mother of two, over the incident ended up being dropped. She now has an acrylic eye
Pagan-Alomar wouldn’t comment Thursday but previously described feeling awful about the permanent injury.
“When I take it out I feel very bad,” she said of the fake eye. “I’m always going to feel like a monster.”
Her lawyer, Michael Braverman, said Pagan-Alomar is “happy the whole thing is going to be in the past.”
“But she does feel something should have happened to the officer,” Braverman added. “I think the cop overreacted. She just lost it.”