New Haven Independent

U.S. District Court Judge Mark Kravitz OK’d a prejudgment remedy sought by attorney Diane Polan placing a $250,000 attachment on Kasperzyk’s Killingworth house.

Polan is suing Kasperzyk, who’s 34, and his former narcotics unit boss, ex-Lt. Billy White, for allegedly breaking down the door and arresting a man they falsely accused of taking part in a car chase with the cops.

Kasperzyk and White also happen to be the two cops caught in an FBI sting of alleged bribe-taking and theft in the narcotics unit. They’ve lost their jobs and are facing federal charges.

Before that sting, Polan had already filed her lawsuit, on behalf of Jorge Pizarro, a Yale custodian, and his mother, Tomasa. They seek $500,000 in economic and emotional damages for the humiliation of the arrest and the “fear, anxiety and emotional distress” of having a group of cops enter the home with guns drawn.

Polan wanted to make sure, with the two cops facing the FBI case, that her clients can collect if they win their case. So she moved to have an attachment filed on Kasperzyk’s Killingworth house to cover the $500,000. (Click here to read an earlier story with details on the case and the motion.) Kasperzyk’s attorney filed a motion opposing Polan’s move.

The stage was set for a dramatic, and potentially devastating, court hearing Monday on the motion. Polan subpoenaed Kasperzyk to testify. She also subpoened Police Chief Francisco Ortiz to bring documentation related to the city’s recent decision to fire Kasperzyk in the wake of the FBI sting. Kasperzyk’s lawyer, Stephen P. Del Sole, filed a motion asking the judge to prevent Polan from asking Kasperzyk on the stand about the FBI case. (Click here to read that motion. Click here to read Del Sole’s motion arguing against the prejudgment remedy.)

Then they gave up. As Polan was preparing for court, she received word from Del Sole that Kasperzyk would agree to having his home attached; that eliminated the need for a hearing, with Kasperzyk and Ortiz testifying. Polan and Del Sole told Judge Kravitz in his third-floor courtroom on Church Street that they’d agreed on a compromise, limiting the attachment to $250,000, rather than $500,000. Kravitz granted the motion, and what had promised to be a lively court hearing ended with a whimper, within minutes. Kasperzyk and the chief didn’t even need to show.

“Cowboy Cop”

The full case remains in the discovery stage. To obtain a prejudgment remedy attaching Kasperzyk’s house, Polan needed to convince the judge that her clients had probable cause for prevailing in their case.

“I think it attests to the strength of the plaintiffs’ case,” Polan said of the agreement, after the court hearing.

The case centers on a 2004 incident in which Kasperzyk chased two men he said had been driving recklessly the wrong way on a sidewalk. He burst into an Elliot Street home, breaking down the door, after a man he said had been involved in the chase. Kasperzyk and Billy White wrote a report claiming that the man was Jorge Pizarro, and that Pizarro had run into the Elliot Street home and pushed back against the door when Kasperzyk tried to enter.

In fact, Polan said, Pizarro had been in the house for hours, and was upstairs at the time Kasperzyk broke his way in. Five cops burst in with “guns blazing” and terrorized a group of people in the house, according to Polan and this complaint she filed.

“I think Kasperzyk is just a cowboy cop. You don’t break down somebody’s door over a motor vehicle violation — even if it had been him. Get a warrant,” Polan said. Besides that Fourth Amendment violation, the cops also just plain lied, Polan charged.

Monday’s hearing reflects the larger problems that may arise for the police department in the wake of the FBI sting: the feds’ charges against Kasperzyk and White could damage their credibility in lots of other unrelated cases, such as this one.

Del Sole said Monday that Kasperzyk “definitely” plans to contest Polan’s version of events as the case proceeds. “We didn’t feel that it was necessary at this time” to continue contesting the motion to attach the ex-detective’s house, Del Sole said.

The city government decided it wouldn’t indemnify Kasperzyk against punitive charges in the lawsuit. (It does cover him for compensatory damages.) That’s why a private lawyer is representing him.

(Click here to read a potboiler 57-page FBI affidavit about the bribery and theft case against Kasperzyk and White. For other related stories on the scandal, click here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here , here and here.)

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