Cop-suit payout surge

City settlements jump by $30M

City payouts in police-misconduct cases are up by nearly $30 million, while the number of new lawsuits claiming such mistreatment has fallen, new data show.

In 2019, the city paid out $68,688,423 to people who claimed they were aggrieved by cop misconduct, including in cases of excessive use of force, assault, malicious prosecution, false arrest or false imprisonment.

In 2018, the city paid out $38,951,976. The tally of payouts over the last five years is $300,754,486, the city data show.

While the settlement and verdict amounts have increased by nearly $30 million, the number of new lawsuits filed in the last year has fallen by more than 200 cases. In 2019, 1,383 police misconduct cases were filed, while 1,615 were filed in 2018, according to the data.

Ten of the largest settlements from 2019 account for more than $23 million in payouts, or nearly half of the total from last year.

The highest settlement amount went to Derrick Hamilton, who had his murder conviction overturned in 2015 after spending more than 20 years in prison.

Hamilton — who had been arrested by shady NYPD cop Louis Scarcella in the 1991 murder of a Brooklyn man — received $6,625,000 from the city last year.

The family of Deborah Danner — a 66-year-old mentally ill woman who was fatally shot by Sgt. Hugh Barry in her Bronx apartment in 2016 as she wielded a bat — received a $2 million settlement from the city in 2019.

The Legal Aid Society says the way the city reports the data obscures the costs of these types of cases. For instance, lawsuits that are settled before they get to court are not included in the figures.

“An epidemic of misconduct within the New York City Police Department continues to cost New York City taxpayers tens of millions of dollars each year,” Corey Stoughton of Legal Aid said.

But Sergeants Benevolent Association president Ed Mullins said the city pays to avoid trouble.

“Either the city pays out just because they pay out and it’s easier for them to do . . . or the anti-police atmosphere is just producing a lot more lawsuits because people know police are an easy target,” Mullins said.

John Jay College Professor Eugene O’Donnell, a former prosecutor and NYPD officer, said the city is quick to settle claims against the police.

“Rather than explain and defend policing, they have handed over taxpayer money,” he said.

The city Law Department said the number of new police-misconduct cases has been declining since 2017.

“We’re taking more cases to trial than ever before to fight for officers,” a rep said.

An NYPD spokeswoman in a statement also noted the decline in cases but did not comment on the reasoning for surging payouts.