Appellate Judges Toss $5M Judgment, Find Cops Acted Properly

An Appellate Division panel of State Supreme Court has tossed a $5-million damage award to a mentally-ill man whom a jury three years ago found was the victim of police officers who used excessive force that led to his breaking a hip during a 2005 confrontation, saying that the cops’ actions were reasonable given the exigent circumstances.

The four-judge panel unanimously concluded that while, as the plaintiff’s lawyer argued, a case could be made that the officers should have awaited the arrival of Emergency Services Unit cops to deal with the man rather than initiating the confrontation, it was not negligent on the officers’ part to seek to subdue him after—following several 911 calls reporting a disturbance in the building—they encountered Demetrio Davila in a stairwell wearing nothing but a pair of underpants he had pulled down to his lower legs.