Former police chief has no one to lean on

Thursday, May 25, 2006 3:00 AM EDT
By William Kaempffer

NEW HAVEN — The attorney for a city police officer has slapped a lien on the former police chief’s house after suggestions that City Hall might not indemnify the chief against a $5 million jury verdict.

In a legal chess game playing out in federal court here, city officials and their lawyers say they have no legal obligation to pay punitive damages levied against municipal employees, suggesting that ex-police Chief Melvin H. Wearing might be on his own to pay the $5 million a jury awarded Officer Arpad Tolnay in December.

Karen Torre, Tolnay’s attorney, described the city’s posture as a transparent ruse, a scheme devised as City Hall tries to wiggle out of a large verdict.

Even so, she placed a judgment lien on Wearing’s Kilborn Street home in West Haven in March.

The question of indemnification arose as Wearing’s attorneys attempt to overturn or reduce the December verdict. The federal jury concluded that Wearing had retaliated against Tolnay after the officer spoke out against what he viewed as improper political meddling by Wearing, Mayor John DeStefano Jr. and others after the arrest of two politically connected ministers in Fair Haven.

Ultimately, the jury awarded Tolnay $903.84 in lost wages for a suspension, $150,000 for emotional distress and $5 million in punitive damages.

State law doesn’t obligate municipalities to foot the bill for punitive damages, which are levied for conduct viewed as wanton, malicious and willful.

"My question is why should taxpayers be saddled with paying an amount of money that they don’t have to?" said Hugh Keefe, a private attorney brought in to represent DeStefano and other city officials who weren’t named in the lawsuit but were subpoenaed to testify. "What she (Torre) has is essentially an uncollectable judgment."

Corporation Counsel Thomas Ude Jr. stopped short of saying the city wouldn’t indemnify Wearing, stating only that the city is under no obligation.

In court papers, Torre calls the maneuver "disingenuous gamesmanship." She said there had been numerous settlement discussions in which Wearing wasn’t even present. If Wearing’s personal finances really were at stake, to not include him in those discussion would at best be malpractice and at worst almost criminal, Torre said.

There has been a flurry of legal maneuvering since the verdict.

Assistant Corporation Counsel Jonathan Beamon, who had represented Wearing at trial, withdrew as Wearing’s co-counsel. Hartford-based attorneys Sandra Snaden and Hubert Santos filed appearances in court to represent Wearing. Keefe was brought in to represent DeStefano, Ude and Beamon, making the two attorneys both client and counsel. Torre enlisted Bethany attorney Norm Pattis to assist her case.

The result was a series of contentious court hearings in which Keefe at one point accused Torre of trying to embarrass DeStefano during his gubernatorial bid.

Torre, in contrast, wondered whether the city had thought out its position on indemnification since DeStefano, Ude and other top city officials are named defendants in other federal lawsuits and could themselves face punitive damages and liens on their own properties.

Tolnay arrested the Revs. Daniel Rodriguez and Armando Hernandez outside a Fair Haven church after what started out as a routine noise complaint on July 26, 2002.

Police were sent to a loud revival service at the Second Star of Jacob Church at 201 Chapel St., and found large concert-sized speakers blasting music out of the church windows. Hernandez was arrested for breach of peace after he refused to turn down the volume and for inciting parishioners into a near riot, police said. Rodriguez was charged with interfering with police when he showed up and demanded to get arrested, too.

In the ensuing two weeks, DeStefano went to the church to apologize, Wearing visited Superior Court to meet with the prosecutor who then dropped the charges and the ministers organized a march on police headquarters.

Meanwhile, Tolnay had made it clear that he believed the whole ordeal was politicized. Wearing suspended Tolnay for 10 days, later reduced to five, for insubordination after the officer walked out of a meeting about the arrests.

Catherine Sullivan-DeCarlo, spokeswoman for DeStefano, said Keefe is being paid $275 an hour to represent the mayor, Ude, Beamon and Derek Slap, the city spokesman reassigned to work on the mayor’s gubernatorial campaign.

Outside counsel was hired because the city is not being sued and Keefe’s four clients are not defendants in the lawsuit. They sought representation in response to being served subpoenas by Torre, she said.

"Because corporation counsel is a witness, it would be a conflict," for Ude or the office to have represented DeStefano, Sullivan-DeCarlo said.

Keefe initially signed a $10,000 general litigation contract but a request is pending with Board of Aldermen officers to increase the agreement by an additional $10,000, according to Office of Legislative Services records.

Register reporter Angela Carter contributed to this report.