City Settles Third Brutality Lawsuit This Year

WORCESTER

The city has agreed to pay a city man $48,750 to settle his federal civil rights lawsuit alleging that a Worcester police sergeant unjustly punched him in the head and struck him with a baton while he was on his knees being arrested for trespassing on railroad tracks.

The police brutality lawsuit brought by Raymond E. Dennison, who alleged that he was beaten by Sgt. Ronald F. LaPointe in June 2003, had been set to go to trial in U.S. District Court in Worcester on June 1.

The $48,750 settlement, which will be paid by the city with taxpayer money, comes less than two months after the city paid $30,000 to settle a police brutality lawsuit filed by an Upton man.

So far this year, the city has settled three police brutality lawsuits at a total cost of $107,750, according to city records. Last year, the city paid $320,000 in public money to settle five police brutality lawsuits.

“As we’ve said in the past, it’s a business decision between myself, the law department and the city administration,” Police Chief Gary J. Gemme said of the settlements. “When we settled this case, there’s no admission of wrongdoing by the officers.”

The department’s Bureau of Professional Standards, formerly called Internal Affairs, cleared Sgt. LaPointe of any wrongdoing in its investigation, Chief Gemme said.

“It was difficult, rocky terrain with steel railroad tracks and a lot of brush overgrowth, and this individual was combative, and, as a result, there was force used that was reasonable to effect the arrest, and there were some injuries,” Chief Gemme said.

Mr. Dennison’s lawyer, Hector E. Pineiro, declined to comment on the alleged beating or the settlement other than to say, “My client is satisfied that the case has been resolved.”

In court papers, Mr. Dennison alleged that he was on his knees with his hands behind his back to be arrested when an agitated Sgt. LaPointe punched him in the left ear twice. When Mr. Dennison complained and demanded the officer’s badge number, Sgt. LaPointe allegedly took a swing at the man with his collapsible baton.

Mr. Dennison alleged that he suffered a broken finger trying to ward off a baton strike aimed at his head and shoulder area.

In his version of events, Sgt. LaPointe alleged that Mr. Dennison was uncooperative and had been reaching toward his waistband in an apparent attempt to grab something, possibly a weapon, according to a pretrial memorandum filed with the court by city lawyer Janet J. McGuiggan.

“While lying in a prone position on the ground, Dennison again reached for his waistband. Still fearful for his safety, LaPointe struck Dennison in the muscle of the upper right arm with his service baton in an effort to prevent Dennison from possibly pulling a weapon from his waistband and to handcuff him,” Ms. McGuiggan wrote.

The city did not dispute that Mr. Dennison was treated for a fractured third metacarpal — a broken finger on his right hand — and for a perforated eardrum at UMass Memorial Medical Center after he was released from custody. The city noted that Mr. Dennison was drunk at the time of the incident with a blood alcohol level of .14 percent, according to court records.

“Plaintiff’s medical records reveal that his eardrum healed in approximately one month and the finger fracture healed as well,” Ms. McGuiggan wrote in her motion.