Named in 3 known lawsuits, $47,500 total settlements.
Butt, Areeb vs City of Ny, et al.
Case # 703743/2021,
Supreme Court - Queens, March 12, 2021
Complaint
Description: On March 15th, 2020, Plaintiff Areeb Butt was lawfully at Apna Bazar Farmer's Market at 124-16 Liberty Avenue, Queens, NY when Defendants--NYPD Police Officers Nicholas Cupolo, Joseph Morgante, James Perino, John Toto, John Does-Police Officers as yet unidentified, and Police Sergeant Doheny--approached and assaulted Plaintiff by beating Plaintiff repeatedly and forcefully placing him in handcuffs. There was no indication that Plaintiff committed/was committing or that Defendants had any probable cause to arrest Plaintiff. Defendants then took Plaintiff to the NYPD 106th Police Precinct, where he was held for several hours until he was released later that day. Because of Plaintiff's arrest, Plaintiff suffered s...
Hines, Thomas, et al. vs City of New York, et al.
Case # 708436/2020,
Supreme Court - Queens, June 26, 2020, ended June 10, 2025
$45,000 Settlement
Complaint
Description: On or about December 6, 2017, police officers Stephen Giustino, Joseph Morgante, John/Jane Doe 1-10 improperly arrested Thomas Hines and Jarrell Wynn based on improper biased based profiling. The officers approached Wynn and pointed guns at him when he was walking towards his vehicle. The officers then grabbed and slammed Wynn to the ground. Wynn was subject to tight handcuff, causing severe physical pain. The officers at no time had a justifiable cause of doing so. Wynn was not read his Miranda rights nor had access to his lawyer, but was subject to intense interrogations by the officers. Several hours later, on the same day, Hines was stopped, searched, grabbed and violently slammed against a wall by the offi...
Starks, Deandre vs City of New York, et al.
Case # 19CV04658,
U.S. District Court - Eastern District NY, August 28, 2019, ended November 5, 2020
$2,500 Settlement
Complaint
Description: Early in the morning on August 17, 2018, Plaintiff was arrested in a violent, unreasonable, and excessive fashion. The three arresting officers, Michael Renna, Joseph Morgante, and Kaitlyn Bazarewski, repeatedly struck Plaintiff in the face and head with a walkie talkie after Plaintiff had surrendered to the arrest. Each of them failed to stop the others from pursuing the excessive force, which led to physical injuries, pain and suffering, scarring, lacerations, bruising swelling and cuts to left eye and forehead, blurred vision, extreme fear, and emotional trauma. The officers were motivated by racial animus and their desire to injure, oppress, threaten, and intimidate plaintiff because of his race.