NYC on the hook for a staggering $213 million in legal payments — a 200% spike
The city shelled out a record $213 million in decisions and settlements from July through October, according to Mayor Adams’ preliminary management report.
The total is a staggering 200% jump from the $60 million forked over during the same period for fiscal year 2023, and a record for the four-month timeframe covered by the PMMR dating back to at least fiscal year 2002, a review of prior reports show.
New York City is a lucrative target for civil suits thanks to its tendency to settle on any issue, big or small, said Ken Girardin, research director at the conservative watchdog group Empire Center for Public Policy.
“When it comes to lawsuits, the New York City government is a big shirtless guy in a cloud of mosquitoes,” he said.
The biggest hits to city taxpayers included:
- Over $167 million in a federal class-action lawsuit brought by former Rikers inmates, who were kept in the clink for as long as a day after coughing up bail, violating city law requiring detainees’ release within three hours. The one-time inmates blamed the delayed releases on outdated computers glitching and poor staffing. “I hope the city looks at the money they spent and they reform their practices rather than face similar lawsuits,” said Debra Greenberger, a lawyer for the inmates. A Department of Correction spokesman said the agency has since implemented a new bail-tracking system to expedite releases.
- An $18 million payout to Carlton Roman, who was wrongfully arrested, convicted and sentenced in November 1990 to more than 43 years in prison for murdering his “good friend” Lloyd Witter and shooting another man in Jamaica, Queens, according to court records. Queens DA Melinda Katz vacated the conviction in August 2021 after new evidence and witnesses refuted claims and testimony during the original trial that fingered Roman as the gunman. Roman’s lawyer James Henning said taxpayers will continue to fund payouts like his client’s until prosecutors “have some type of incentive to not conceal evidence and maliciously prosecute people.”
- More than $3.1 million to Manhattan mom and fashion director Anne Monoky, who used her body to shield her children from a tree which toppled onto them in Central Park in 2017. Monoky was “completely immobilized” with a fractured cervical spine, one of her lawyers said at the time. The injury prevented her from breastfeeding her 2-month-old. Monoky’s “case was fiercely defended by the city and her settlement was the result of arms length discussions that took place over a number of years,” said Nicole Lefkowitz, a spokeswoman for Mononky’s attorney Jordan Merson.
- $2.35 million to FDNY Lt. Brendan Connolly, who fractured his spine in Aug. 2016 after the fire engine he was riding in hit a sinkhole in Cypress Hills in Brooklyn. Residents said the city failed to properly fix the depression for years.
The surge in payouts stems from courts continuing to move through a backlog of litigation which piled up during the pandemic, according to a Law Department spokesman.
Big Apple district attorneys in recent years have also reversed a number of decades-old criminal convictions.
“We carefully evaluate cases and try to resolve them in the best interest of the city. Settlements can avoid the risk of protracted litigation which can be even costlier to taxpayers,” the Law Department spokesman said.
The $213 million total did not include the city’s explosive $13 million federal class-action settlement announced in July with Black Lives Matter protestors, who alleged they were beaten or improperly arrested by police in June 2020, the Law Department said, because the case hasn’t been finalized.
