Worcester cops facing $8 million judgment assign malpractice rights to plaintiff

WORCESTER ― Two Worcester police officers facing an $8 million jury verdict have assigned their legal rights, including malpractice rights, to the man a federal jury ruled they convicted on fabricated evidence, the Telegram & Gazette has learned.

Natale Cosenza, a former city man jailed for 16 years on a later-vacated armed burglary conviction, agreed to stop pursuing the officers’ assets as part of the settlement, court documents show.

The unusual agreement follows a tumultuous post-trial period that an experienced civil rights lawyer told the T&G earlier this year raised questions of potential conflicts of interest for lawyers involved in the case.

The law firm that represented Sgt. Kerry Hazelhurst and Officer John Doherty before and at trial, Hassett & Donnelly P.C., was paid by the City of Worcester.

After the trial, one of the trial lawyers for Hassett & Donnelly — the city’s former head litigator, Wendy L. Quinn — said at a court hearing that, because punitive damages were assessed in the jury verdict, the city was legally unable to pay out on the $8 million judgment.

The head of the city’s officer’s union, Sgt. Rick Cipro, told the T&G following the February hearing that the officers weren’t aware of the argument ahead of time. Court records show Hazelhurst and Doherty obtained a separate lawyer, Carl D. Aframe, in June.

Quinn and co-counsel Courtney E. Mayo formally withdrew from the case Thursday. In a legal filing, a lawyer representing them wrote that a recent settlement agreement between Cosenza and the officers requires their withdrawal because the “personal interest of the lawyers is now directly adverse to the interests of the clients.”

In a phone interview Friday, Aframe, a Worcester bankruptcy lawyer with more than four decades of experience confirmed the officers had assigned all their legal rights, including malpractice rights, to Cosenza.

Aframe said his clients “were not informed that, in the event that the judgment found punitive damages, that they would be held personally responsible, and that the city would not have to pay up to its cap of a million dollars.”

Under state law, cities are required to indemnify officers for up to $1 million unless punitive damages are awarded. Cosenza’s out-of-state lawyers nevertheless requested punitive damages at trial, a move veteran Boston civil rights lawyer Howard Friedman told the T&G earlier this year he would have avoided.

Friedman said the request begged the question of whether lawyers at Hassett & Donnelly – as would be in the officers’ best interest – had informed Cosenza’s lawyers about the statute prior to trial.

Cosenza’s lawyers, of the Chicago firm Loevy & Loevy, did not respond to a request for comment.

A lawyer representing Hassett & Donnelly, Paul O’Connor, told the T&G Friday that he could not speak to whether the firm had informed Loevy & Loevy about the punitive damages issue.

However, he said Aframe’s statement regarding the officers not being properly advised was false.

“His statement is wrong. I’ll leave it at that,” O’Connor said, adding that issues of attorney-client privilege prevented him from speaking further.

In a statement earlier this year, a city spokesperson said that “as a matter of practice, all named defendants in lawsuits are explained the risk of individual and personal liability.”

O’Connor said Friday he is “confident that my clients haven’t done anything wrong and they offered good legal representation.”

Aframe said the legal proceedings have been difficult on Hazelhurst and Doherty, who he said were told prior to trial they had an excellent case.

Aframe said Loevy & Loevy offered to settle the case prior to trial for $1.5 million, but the city sent a counteroffer the firm found too low to consider.

While the punitive damages, which amounted to just $30,000 of the jury's verdict, prevent the city from paying toward the judgment, they do not prevent the city from paying a settlement on the case.

Aframe said the officers, as a result of the case not being resolved, have been living under the threat of financial ruin for months.

As the T&G has reported, Cosenza’s lawyers have sought the officers' assets to make good on the judgment, while at the same time criticizing the city for not resolving the case.

“It seems to me that they're working for the City of Worcester, not for the two cops,” a lawyer for Cosenza, Locke E. Bowman, said in February of Hassett & Donnelly.

Attempts to reach the heads of the unions for the city’s police officers were not immediately successful.

Asked about the potential broader implications of the case, Aframe said, “I can’t speak for all cops, or any one of the cops. But if I were a cop, I would be thinking, ‘If a case like this comes up, would the city protect me?’”

Asked for comment on the settlement, Tom Matthews, a spokesman for the city, noted that it did not involve the city and that an appeal Cosenza filed in the case remains active.

A federal judge had, before trial, dismissed the city from liability in the case through a process called summary judgment. Cosenza has appealed that decision and the settlement he reached with Hazelhurst and Doherty does not impact that appeal.

Hazelhurst and Doherty, in addition to assigning their legal rights to Cosenza, dropped their own appeal of the jury verdict as part of the settlement.

A federal jury awarded Cosenza $8 million in September 2022 after finding he had been wrongfully convicted of a home burglary based on fabricated evidence.

Cosenza spent nearly 16 years in prison after being convicted in a 2000 burglary in which a woman was assaulted during the night by a man in her bedroom.

At the civil trial, Cosenza argued that police had conducted a poor investigation based on deficient suspicion, created an unfair lineup and fabricated and suppressed evidence to secure his conviction.

Jurors found that Hazelhurst had suppressed and knowingly fabricated evidence, and that those actions led to Cosenza being wrongfully convicted.

They also found that Hazelhurst and Doherty had “conspired to violate (Cosenza’s) right to a fair trial by suppressing or fabricating material evidence.”

In a telephone interview Thursday, Cosenza said that while he could not speak about the details of the settlement for legal reasons, he appreciates Loevy & Loevy for its representation.

“I’ve been waiting for this day for a very long time,” he said, noting the time he lost in his life, including with his father, Peter Cosenza Sr., a Shrewsbury barber who died not long after his release from prison.

“It’s been over 23 years I’ve been fighting this case,” Cosenza said. “It’s been very traumatic for me and my family.

“This news is very exciting and does give me some type of relief for the emotions I’ve been dealing with over the years for being wrongfully convicted.”

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester cops assign malpractice rights to Natale Cosenza