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| Judge: Dead Inmate's Family Can Sue |
| By Newsday |
| Published: 11/26/2002 |
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A federal judge has ruled that the parents and siblings of Thomas Pizzuto, the Nassau inmate fatally beaten by correction officers in 1999, can sue the county for emotional stress caused by officers who allegedly intimidated and harassed them. But U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis, in a decision November 18, dismissed the family's wrongful death suit, saying the family had no standing because they don't administer or benefit from their son's estate. The decision does not affect the wrongful death and other claims made in the same suit by Pizzuto's wife, Virginia. Her attorneys, Felice Muraca and Dennis Kelly of Mineola, seek a ruling that the county is liable for Pizzuto's death. In his 22-page decision, Garaufis, who sits in Brooklyn, said it should be up to a jury to determine whether the family's allegations against the correction officers are true. They claim in court papers that officers purposefully kept the family from Pizzuto when he was first hospitalized three days after the beating in January 1999 and that when the family members were allowed to see him, officers tried to intimidate Pizzuto into not talking about the incident. When officers stepped away briefly, Pizzuto whispered to his father, Rosario, who has since died, what had happened. Pizzuto, a former heroin addict who was serving a 90-day sentence for driving under the influence of methadone, was beaten after he loudly demanded the drug, which he had been taking for several years. Pizzuto's brother, Anthony Pizzuto, was stopped by correction officers before he could go to the emergency room where his brother was being treated, the suit says. Officers turned him away, then followed him into the parking lot and 'intentionally intimidated' him and his mother, Carol Pizzuto, by standing behind their car and preventing them from moving, the court papers state. The Hicksville family, which also includes Pizzuto's brothers Joseph and Russell, also claims they were caused distress because correction officers tried to cover up the beating by filing a false report that Pizzuto had slipped and fallen in the shower. Five correction officers were federally prosecuted and convicted in connection with the beating and cover-up, and are named as defendants in the suit, along with the county and jail. During one trial, the family says they were forced to walk through a gauntlet of uniformed and off-duty officers in the parking lot of the federal courthouse in Uniondale. They were 'pushed, shoved, insulted and threatened with bodily harm,' court papers say. Garaufis said that in pre-trial hearings, the family provided 'a less than wholly focused picture of the alleged conspiracy to deny the family access to Thomas Pizzuto.' But he added that a 'reasonable jury may find [the] allegations, if true, are 'extreme' and 'outrageous.'' He added that what made the conduct particularly egregious and supportive of an emotional distress claim was that it was done 'with the authority and power of the state.' |
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There is a lot of information on this website about inmates and prison guards. I didn’t realize what was going on in our prison system until I discovered this website. Similarly, I didn’t understand litigation finance until I read more from Hamilton Lindley who is a litigation finance expert based in Texas.