$5.5M award for death in police custody
Suit alleged Union City cops at fault, ignored asthma attack
Thursday, February 27, 2003
By Michaelangelo Conte - Journal staff writerA federal jury in Newark has awarded $5.5 million to the family of a Union City man who died more in police custody than three years ago.
The jury found that four Union City police officers failed to provide medical assistance to Esteban Rosario, 63, who died Oct. 27, 1999, after suffering an apparent asthma attack while handcuffed in the back of a police car, said his son, Stephen Rosario.
When police finally removed Rosario from the car, he fell face forward while still in his handcuffs, smashing his teeth on the pavement, his son said.
Esteban Rosario was then taken to Christ Hospital in Jersey City and pronounced dead, Rosario said.
"A big burden was lifted when the jury showed that the police officers deprived my dad of medical care and of his life," Rosario said.
The verdict was handed down on Tuesday afternoon in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge William Walls after 21/2 days of deliberation.
"Think about suffocating slowly and being watched by everybody and no one doing a damned thing to help you. I hope they get fired and the prosecutor brings criminal charges against them," Rosario said.
"The lawyers did a great job in getting justice for my father and I hope the officers get what they deserve, too."
The jury awarded Rosario's estate $2.5 million for his pain and suffering, finding that four police officers caused his death by negligently failing to help him, said attorney Jeffrey Phillips, who handled the case with Geoffrey Fieger and Michelle Greenberg.
The jury also awarded the four Rosario children $3 million for their loss of "guidance and counsel" as a result of their father's death, Phillips said.
Union City's attorney, Andrew Indeck, said he will bring a motion to dismiss the $3 million award, saying there was no evidence in the case as to what would have been the economic value, if any, that Rosario might have rendered to them in the future.
Phillips said Union City police Detectives Glenn Gaston and Juan Loaces and Officers Juan Mendez and Jose Perez "intentionally, willfully, maliciously, wantonly, unlawfully and brutally . withheld (Rosario's) asthma medication when he suffered an extreme asthma attack while handcuffed and in their custody."
The jury also found that Union City and its Police Department were negligent in not firing Gaston and Loaces, finding that they should have been fired before the incident because of previous blemishes on their records, Phillips said.
Union City Mayor Brian Stack said he will soon meet with city attorneys and Union City Police Chief Norman Bareis to discuss the verdict and decide what actions, if any, the city will take. He said he wasn't sure if the city would try to fire any or all of the officers involved.
Rosario wasn't the man police set out to arrest. On the night he died, Union City police were looking for Oswaldo Garcia, who was wanted on drug charges, and found him in front of the Seventh Street apartment building where he shared an apartment with the Rosario family, Phillips said.
"Garcia was on the street, but they told him they wanted his ID for no other reason but to access the apartment," Phillips said.
When police followed Garcia into the apartment, Esteban Rosario demanded to know why the officers were in his home and if they had a search warrant, said Phillips.
Phillips said the officers repeatedly told Rosario to "shut the hell up" and "get out," but when he refused, they put him in handcuffs and led him outside into the chilly evening, wearing only boxer shorts and a T-shirt, and sat him in the back of a police car.
"He had an asthma attack and they were laughing at him and finally, when he passed out after about seven to 10 minutes, then they called an ambulance," Phillips said.
His son said police only called the ambulance because people in the crowd that had formed started yelling at the cops that the man needed help.
Indeck, arguing for Union City, said the medical examiner determined the cause of Rosario's death to be congestive heart failure, not asthma. But the plaintiffs' attorneys had their own expert, Dr. Michael Boden, testify that Rosario's heart disease was not advanced enough to cause his death.