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The New York Daily News published a bombshell report outlining how Republican nominee for New York’s Fourth Congressional District Anthony D’Esposito cost New York taxpayers over $80,000 in settlement fees for violating New Yorkers’ rights.
Long Island voters should be concerned that D’Esposito’s wrongdoings – which include wrongfully arresting an elderly woman and putting a diabetic patient at risk – cost taxpayers over $80,000.
Let’s not forget recent reports also revealed that D’Esposito’s incompetence lead to a criminal being able to steal his loaded department-issued firearm after D’Esposito “failed” to secure it.
DCCC Spokesperson Nebeyatt Betre
“D’Esposito is clearly unfit to serve. These wrongful arrests and gross mistreatment of New Yorkers clearly reflect his total inability to be a trusted and competent leader.”
Read more here
NY Daily News: Retired NYPD Detective Anthony D’Esposito racked up lawsuits that cost NYC more than $80K: records
By Michael Gartland
Nov 01, 2022
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Lawsuits against a retired NYPD detective running for Congress in Nassau County have cost New York City taxpayers $82,500 in settlements — a fact his opponent has seized upon in what will likely be a tight election.
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Anthony D’Esposito, a Republican, has been named in at least three court cases where plaintiffs accused him of violating their civil rights — two in federal court and one in state Supreme Court.
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The former detective, who worked out of the 73rd Precinct in Brownsville, Brooklyn, is facing off against Democrat Laura Gillen for control of the congressional seat now held by Rep. Kathleen Rice, a Democrat. Rice will step down when her current term is up next year.
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In one of the lawsuits against D’Esposito, three plaintiffs claimed they were falsely arrested and detained, resulting in one of them, who suffered from diabetes, having to be hospitalized after being denied immediate medical attention and losing consciousness.
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The plaintiffs — June Campbell, Cherell Tillman and Dawn Tillman — brought the Brooklyn Federal Court suit against D’Esposito, the city and two NYPD sergeants in April 2015. In it, they claimed Campbell, who was 75 at the time, was falsely arrested and chained to a bench in the 73rd Precinct stationhouse after police said a suspect ran into her home with a gun. That arrest was ultimately voided, according to court papers.
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The three women also claimed that the Tillmans were falsely arrested and charged with criminal possession of a weapon. Those charges were later adjourned in contemplation of dismissal.
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But according to the lawsuit, the arrests left their mark, especially on Dawn Tillman, who passed out in Central Booking due to her diabetes and had to be taken to Long Island College Hospital as a result.
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The case against D’Esposito, the other cops and the city was ultimately settled in March 2016 with a payout of $37,500 to the plaintiffs, according to records kept by the city Law Department.
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In another lawsuit against D’Esposito, also filed in Brooklyn Federal Court, plaintiff Vaughan Bethea of Brooklyn accused the ex-cop and several other officers of illegally stopping and frisking him on Dec. 3, 2013.
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“Without probable cause, or arguable probable cause, to believe he had committed any crime or offense, Mr. Bethea was handcuffed and taken to the 73rd Precinct,” Bethea’s complaint, which was filed in April 2014, states. “At the precinct, defendants unlawfully conducted a strip search of Mr. Bethea and no contraband was recovered.”
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The lawsuit goes on to claim that Bethea was then taken to Central Booking, arraigned in Criminal Court and later locked up at Rikers Island for six days after failing to make bail. The charges against him were ultimately dropped.
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Bethea sued the city, D’Esposito and several other unnamed defendants. His lawsuit was settled in October 2014. Records maintained by the Law Department show the city paid out $45,000 to Bethea.
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The city’s legal team did not admit to any wrongdoing or liability in either settlement, records show.
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Aside from those settlements, D’Esposito also has a history of getting into hot water with the NYPD itself. Last month, the Daily New revealed he was disciplined by the department for leaving his gun unattended in a car and for working as a DJ without Police Department permission.
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Another court case against D’Esposito also remains unresolved.
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In that case, which was filed in Manhattan Supreme Court in 2013, plaintiff Gregory Crockett claimed D’Esposito knowingly lied to the Manhattan district attorney and grand jury in pursuing a conviction of Crockett, who had been charged in 2011 with illegal weapons possession and criminal possession of a controlled substance. Crockett accused D’Esposito of concocting a story to the DA and a grand jury in which Crockett told the now-retired detective that he lived in a house where illegal drugs and weapons were recovered — even though Crockett claimed he never made such a statement to D’Esposito.
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“The fabricated evidence in the form of false representations made by D’Esposito constituted material evidence in the underlying prosecution, and evidence that was likely to influence a jury’s decision on plaintiff’s guilt or innocence,” Crockett’s lawsuit claims. “D’Esposito knew that there was no probable cause to initiate or continue the prosecution of plaintiff.”
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The drug and weapons case against Crockett was dropped in February 2013, according to court papers. In December of that year, Crockett filed his lawsuit against D’Esposito and the city, whose legal team has moved to have the case dismissed, claiming that Crockett failed to “state a cause of action.”
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Both the Law Department and Crockett’s attorney Edward Sivin declined to comment on the case.
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All of this has raised the hackles of D’Esposito’s Democratic opponent Gillen, who told The News on Tuesday that “while D’Esposito is pretending to be an expert on crime, his record shows a clear and disturbing pattern of him lying, threatening public safety and draining taxpayer money.”
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“D’Esposito may be the first candidate in modern history to resist removing guns from the streets while also putting guns in criminal hands,” she said. “His alleged lies to law enforcement are not surprising. His entire campaign is based on lies to scare voters into thinking he will protect them, when he’s actually a significant threat to our safety and freedom.”
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D’Esposito spokesman Matt Capp declined to address the settlements or lawsuits directly and instead touted endorsements his boss received from several police unions.
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“There’s a reason I have received the endorsement of all the law enforcement organizations in the race for Congress,” Capp, speaking for D’Esposito, stated. “As a retired NYPD detective, I dedicated myself to keeping neighbors safe and standing up to dangerous criminals.”
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