Seven men were awarded $81 million in compensatory damages yesterday from a Bronx jury in a case over a 1992 police-brutality incident caught on videotape.
The men sued the city after they claimed six NYPD cops beat them with flashlights and nightsticks on Sept. 7, 1992, as they were handing out fliers at Orchard Beach calling for a boycott of Budweiser beer over the hiring practices of brewer Anheuser Busch.
The cops told them leafleting was illegal without a permit.
When they refused to leave, the men said the cops attacked them.
“Things got out of hand and it became mayhem,” said lawyer Mark Kressner, who represented the seven men. “The cops beat up on these guys and the jury saw that.”
The men were roughed up, but weren’t badly hurt. The lawsuit accused police of maliciously prosecuting them.
Kressner said a second trial will determine if the men deserve punitive damages.
The award was “quite surprising and inexplicably high,” said Kate O’Brien Ahlers, a spokeswoman for the city Corporation Counsel.