Police settle brutality case
DJ
By ANDREW WOLFE Telegraph Staff
wol...@telegraph-nh.com
CONCORD – Nashua Police appear to have reached a last-minute settlement with
a man who claimed he was beaten after spitting on a police officer three years
ago.
Jurors had deliberated for several hours Thursday when the case concluded, and
the jury was dismissed without having reached a verdict, said the man’s
lawyer, Lawrence Vogelman of Exeter.
“The case is over,” Vogelman said, but he declined to confirm whether the
two sides had reached a settlement.
Neither police officials nor the city’s lawyer, Donald Gardner of Manchester,
could be reached for comment late Thursday afternoon.
Terrance Dolphin, 39, of Nashua, charges Officer Thomas Bergeron and another
unidentified officer beat him after he spit on Bergeron, who had arrested him
on a domestic violence charge.
This was Dolphin’s second such claim against Nashua police. In 1999, the
city’s insurance company settled another lawsuit Dolphin brought, charging
police beat him after he fled a traffic stop. City and police officials have
refused to disclose the sum of that settlement.
City police became self-insured in 2000, in part so they could decide for
themselves whether to settle such claims, Gardner has said previously.
U.S. District Court Judge Steven McAuliffe dismissed Sgt. Timothy Goulden and
Officer Erich Cross from the trial Wednesday, finding Dolphin had failed to
offer evidence against them.
Gardner argued Dolphin gave no credible evidence against Bergeron, either.
A neighbor and Dolphin’s former girlfriend contradicted Dolphin’s account
of his Aug. 27, 2000, arrest, testifying that he loudly and actively resisted
before Bergeron subdued him with pepper spray, Gardner told jurors during his
closing argument Thursday morning.
Vogelman told jurors that Bergeron pulled over his cruiser and beat Dolphin as
“payback” after Dolphin spit on him.
Bergeron testified he stopped his cruiser twice because Dolphin kept spitting
into the front seat – a feat made possible only after Dolphin had wriggled
out of his seat and seatbelt in the back of the cruiser.
Bergeron testified that he pulled Dolphin back into his seat, and cinched down
the seatbelt.
Bergeron said he once pushed Dolphin’s face aside with the palm of his hand,
but only to keep Dolphin from spitting on him again.
Gardner argued Dolphin could have been injured at any number of points as he
struggled with police, squirmed about the back of the cruiser, or even later,
in his cell.
Dolphin had several bruises on his body, and a scrape and small cut on his
face, when he was brought to the Hillsborough County jail the day after his
arrest.
Gardner noted that Dolphin didn’t require so much as a Band-Aid or aspirin,
and his injuries left no lasting impairment or disfigurement. He suggested
Dolphin would have been hurt worse if police had beaten him.
Vogelman argued the severity doesn’t matter.
“The law doesn’t give Tom Bergeron the right to beat Terry Dolphin as long
as . . . he doesn’t put him in the hospital. He’s not allowed to do it at
all,” Vogelman said.
“They didn’t have to kill him to violate his constitutional rights,” he
said.
Police officers are trained and paid to deal with disrespectful, unruly and
violent people, and Nashua police do so routinely, Gardner said.
“This was not new to him (Bergeron). He’d been spit on before. . . . People
had resisted arrest before,” Gardner said. “Was he upset (about being spat
upon)? Sure.”
No officer would risk his career over a trivial, albeit revolting, insult,
Gardner argued.
“The only way Tom Bergeron can defend himself and be vindicated from those
claims . . . is to seek your judgment,” Gardner said, adding later, “What
we have here is a man who is angry at the fact that a police officer arrested
him . . . He’s now striking back.”
http://nashuatelegraph.com/Main.asp?SectionID=25&SubSectionID=354&Article
ID=93008
"The gravest abuse of power - and the gravest threats to personal liberty and
security - are those in which the very individuals to whom we look for the
preservation of law and order turn out to be the predators."
Law Dawg
DJ brags>>>>>
"Thursday when the case concluded, and the jury was dismissed without
having reached a verdict, said the man's lawyer
injuries left no lasting impairment or disfigurement."
Sounds like the City and Police have just given up on these false
allegations and just pay the thugs. As long as the taxpayers choose to
play these games, it will continue.
"The popular abuse by citizens - and the false claims of ambulance
chasers - are those in which the citizen is irresponsible, wants a quick
buck, and lays blame on others ."