The Legal Aid Society looked to name and shame cops on Tuesday whom, the organization says, have garnered the most lawsuits for alleged police misconduct over the course of the last decade.
The list includes both active members of the department and those no longer in service in ranks ranging from police officer to sergeant and lieutenant. Leading examples are Sergeant David Grieco, who the Legal Aid Society charges has a whopping 48 cases filed against him since 2013 and racked up $1,134,825.35 in lawsuit payouts.
According to the CCRB database and 50-a.org, a database which tracks CCRB complaints and other public data about police officers, Grieco also has 101 misconduct allegations, 17 of which were substantiated.
Another officer, Pedro Rodriguez, who works out of Brooklyn’s 72nd Precinct, has 4 cases filed and a total of $12,050,000 in payouts — the highest amount of judgments for any active NYPD member. He has 19 allegations, 10 of which are substantiated for abuse of authority.
Staff Attorney with the Cop Accountability Project at The Legal Aid Society Jennivine Wong charged that the fact many of cops listed are still able to carry guns and continue their roles in spite of the mounting accusations is disturbing.
Read more: Police Blotter
“Together, these NYPD members of service have garnered hundreds of lawsuits raising alarming allegations of misconduct and costing taxpayers staggering amounts of money. Yet many of these officers are still allowed to wear a badge and carry a gun,” Wong said. “Moreover, despite these allegations, many have attained ranks of sergeant or above. So long as NYPD leadership continues to allow problematic officers to rise through the ranks and refuses to address the Department’s culture of impunity, our clients – the majority of whom are from Black and Latinx communities – will continue to shoulder the consequences and the general public’s trust of the NYPD will remain fractured.”
The Police Benevolent Association, the NYPD’s largest police union representing rank-and-file members, and its president, Patrick Hendry, pushed back against the list — stating that lawsuits don’t always constitute wrongdoing.
The PBA also indicated that they do not believe all the accusations to be accurate based on documents like an affidavit that claims Officer Rodriguez, in particular, was not the primary actor in the lawsuit.
“Lawsuit data is not a reliable indicator of how police officers perform their duties. Lawsuits are frequently settled for reasons that have nothing to do with the actions of a specific police officer named in the suit, including cases where city settles rather than fighting a frivolous suit in court,” Hendry said.
amNewYork Metro reached out to the NYPD for comment, and is awaiting a response.
This list of NYPD’s alleged bad actors comes one month after The Legal Aid Society released a report revealing that the City paid out $114,586,723 million in lawsuits alleging police misconduct for 2023, the second-highest annual payout since 2018.
The Legal Aid Society estimates that since 2018, these lawsuits have cost taxpayers a staggering $548,047,141.
