Trenton settles $130k in lawsuits for PD
TRENTON » Cops did nothing wrong, but the city is still paying big money.
Last month, City Council signed off on two settlements totaling $130,000 related to two lawsuits targeting Trenton Police.
Of that money, $75,000 is going to couple Donyell and Zelina Knight, who sued after Donyell suffered a stroke and nearly died in police lockup in 2014, the lawsuit said.
The city is also paying $55,000 to Theresa Discher, who claimed cops used “excessive and unreasonable force” on her when they barged into her home, stuck guns in her face and dislocated her arm during a kidnapping investigation in 2016.
The police department has faced a steady stream of lawsuits relating to police brutality and misconduct.
The Knights’ lawsuit was reminiscent of police failures outlined in the wrongful death lawsuits the city settled with the family of Kenneth Howard and Loretta Klank.
Like Howard’s complaint. Knight implicated the same Trenton Police aides, Jose Millan and Richard Reyes, who were charged but not convicted of covering up Howard’s death in police lockup.
The city paid out $690,000 to settle Howard’s lawsuit. A few months later, council approved another $350,000 award for Klank’s family. Klank hung herself from the bars of a cell at the city police department’s North Clinton Avenue headquarters in March 2008.
The problems in lockup for Knight were real, according to the lawsuit, after he claimed he was ignored and went untreated for two days after suffering seizures and a stroke. He asked for but was deprived of medication, causing partial blindness, the lawsuit said.
Discher’s beef in 2016 was with arresting officers Jason Astbury, Tara Dzurkoc, Samuel Gonzalez and city police director Ernest Parrey Jr. Cops demanded to be let into her home while they investigated the kidnapping of her friend’s daughter, the lawsuit said.
The cops were after David Fink, who was accused of abducting his ex-girlfriend’s baby from the 600 block of Brunswick Avenue. The mother went to police after Fink apparently refused to tell her where he was hiding the kid.
Discher claimed in the lawsuit officers pointed guns at her, told her to put her hands up and “freeze.” She claimed despite obeying the officers’ orders, they still twisted and bent her right arm behind her back, dislocating it at the elbow, and slapped the cuffs on extra tight.
Discher, who had a warrant for her arrest at the time, was charged with obstruction, resisting, kidnapping and child endangerment. She pleaded guilty in January of this year to the obstruction charge, a disorderly persons offense, while other charges were dismissed, according to court records.
She escaped without jail time and was ordered to pay fines and court fees.
Fink, who was also slapped with kidnapping and child endangerment charges, pleaded guilty to child endangerment and got two years of probation.
The city claimed settling the complaints were in the city’s “best interest” without admitting cops did anything wrong.