by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack
SDNY COURTHOUSE, March 21 – Juwaun Fraser was arrested on Avenue D on Manhattan's Lower East Side on October 14, 2014 and charged with robbing an undercover drug purchaser in a "Buy and Bust" operation.
He was subsequently exonerated after serving two years, and then sued for fabrication of evidence.
On March 16 and March 17, 2023 U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Colleen McMahon was presiding over the trial. Inner City Press went and covered it.
After evidence about Fraser lost wages - at the time of arrest he was a paid union apprentice for the Sheet Metal Workers Local 28 - there was cross examination of a supervisor of the New York Police Department's database of civil lawsuits against police officer.
It emerged that at the relevant time, it was left to police officers set to testify to ask for a list of the lawsuits against them.
The allegations in the trial are that the law enforcement witnesses lied and were misleading.
On March 21, the jury returned with its verdict. Inner City Press was in the courtroom. It was liability on all counts, for the City, Detectives Jason Deltoro and Matthew Regina, and Undercover Officer Number 84 ($200,000) and Det Del Toro ($100k), et al found LIABLE for withholding of Brady material - and City found liable too- compensatory $1,500,000
Judge McMahon thanked the jurors and told them they were free to speak - while citing the talkative juror in Georgia. Sometimes less is more.
The case is Fraser v. City of New York, et al., 20-cv-4926 (McMahon)
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