ENEWSLETTER: March 2016

Civil Rights and Personal Injury and General Practice Law Firm, Dedicated to Social Justice

The Law Offices of Frederick K. Brewington is a well-respected litigation firm with an office in Hempstead, Long Island. Our focus is primarily in the area of civil rights, voting rights, employment discrimination, police misconduct, personal injury, medical malpractice, wrongful death and criminal law. However, the Law Offices of Frederick K. Brewington is a full- service law firm handling matters in numerous areas of law and providing a wide range of services from contract formation to litigation and trial practice.

RECENT VERDICTS AND SETTLEMENTS
$7.75 million- Civil Rights and wrongful death action brought by the family of deceased

$4.7 million- Repeated verbal and physical assaults on Yemeni-American employee, while supervisor failed to protect employee and discipline the assailant

$1.277 million- Race based attack and serious injury by violent acts against Plaintiffs, who were lured to an isolated warehouse

$2.8 million- Wrongful death, products liability case involving a tow motor accident at a sewage treatment plant

Second Circuit Court of Appeals Allows False Arrest Trial to Proceed

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently denied a motion for summary judgment and a denial of qualified immunity for a group of Nassau County police officers who were challenging accusations of false arrest and abuse of process. The court further allowed video evidence that showed the officers illegally evicting the plaintiff from the premises and using excessive force.

On October 23, 2009, Plaintiff Michael Smith was arrested at his home, located at 79 Williams Street in Roosevelt, and charged with two separate counts of Criminal Trespass by the defendants, Nassau County Detectives Timothy Slevin and Martin Helmke; meanwhile, several other uniformed Nassau County police officers stood by and/or actively assisted the defendant detectives. Approximately an hour or two immediately prior to Mr. Smith’s arrest, Detectives Slevin and Helmke — along with several uniformed police officers — actively evicted Mr. Smith and his pregnant fiancée from their home.

This arrest and eviction were captured on video, which was supplied to the Court and showed the time before Mr. Smith’s arrest. Mr. Smith was physically forced out of his home and was made to stand outside the fence to the property as he watched the defendant detectives, along with several police officers, throw his property out of the house and onto the front lawn in garbage bags.

While this was occurring, Mr. Smith, his neighbors, family, and friends picked up Mr. Smith’s personal property off the front lawn and packed it into a van. They all protested the actions of the police, but were being ignored. Detectives Slevin and Helmke did not place, or attempt to place, Mr. Smith under arrest for over an hour while he stood off the property and watched the police throw his belongings onto the lawn. It was not until Mr. Smith, who was on the phone (not on the property) with his lawyer, stated, “My lawyer told me to tell you that you are performing an illegal eviction” that Detective Slevin then grabbed the plaintiff and placed Mr. Smith under arrest for criminal trespass in the second and third degree, despite the fact he was on the public sidewalk. Those charges were later dismissed. (This statement and the arrest were captured on video with audio.)

The defendants moved to prevent the trial to go any further, but on March 31, 2015, the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, denied the motion. The defendants appealed the decision, but on March 16, 2016, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Mr. Smith, concurring with his accusations of false arrest against the defendant detectives. The Court also stated that the detectives’ arguments were without merit and denied their motion for summary judgment and qualified immunity.

Mr. Brewington, along with Gregory Calliste, Jr. of the Law Offices of Frederick K. Brewington represented Mr. Smith during the appeal.

The decision can be found here.

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