Brooklyn man wins $890,000 verdict in wrongful-arrest case; said NYPD planted drugs, made girlfriend falsely claim kidnapping
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A Brooklyn federal jury awarded $890,000 to a Brooklyn man who accused NYPD officers of planting cocaine on him and forcing his girlfriend to falsely claim he kidnapped her, lawyers and court papers say.
The verdict was reached Friday following a trial in which a judge allowed one of the cops, Sgt. David Grieco, to be identified by his street name, “Bullethead,” by which he is known by many residents of East New York.
The city argued against allowing the nickname into testimony, calling it prejudicial and of no value to the case. But lawyers for the plaintiff, Justin McClarin, argued that he, his girlfriend and a witness only know Grieco by his nickname.
The city says it is weighing an appeal of the verdict.
City Law Department spokesman Nicholas Paolucci said McClarin, now 32, “should not get a dime from city taxpayers” and that when he was busted in an apartment in December 2015, police had probable cause to arrest him and believed he had held his girlfriend “captive in a dungeon-like basement.”
“Unfortunately, plaintiff was able to capitalize on the recanting of this victim’s statement, which we believe was done out of concern for her family,” Paolucci said.
But Eylan Schulman, a lawyer for McClarin, said the criminal charges were dismissed because they weren’t true.
“We were in court about just one incident — but the incident was a mirror into a much bigger problem,” Schulman said. “We were in court to correct one injustice and are hopeful that the verdict for our client will send a message to others in the law enforcement community — that this kind of behavior has consequences — and will not be tolerated in our society.”
Grieco, a 16-year veteran now assigned to work on crime control strategies at 1 Police Plaza, has been named a defendant in nearly 50 lawsuits in which the city has previously paid $1,006,750 in settlement money.
He was one of five cops named in McClarin’s suit. Grieco and three others were held liable for an unlawful search or malicious prosecution, or both. The Brooklyn Federal Court jury dismissed excessive-force allegations against all the officers in the case.
