Two Yankee fans – one of them blind – hit the Bronx Bombers with a $6 million civil-rights suit, charging they were illegally forced out of Yankee Stadium after taking a photo of catcher Jorge Posada’s wife in the stands.
Nicholas Malossi said Yankee security guards ejected him from a game on Sept. 22 without explanation. Afterward, he was told that Laura Posada complained he had photographed her, and that’s why security ushered him out of the House that Ruth Built.
Meanwhile, his blind friend, Jerry Lonergran, was left in the lurch unattended inside the stadium.
The suit filed by lawyer David Brickman claims that taking photographs inside the stadium is not illegal, and that no one should have been ejected.
“I was kicked out of Yankee Stadium and my camera was basically stolen for no good reason,” Malossi, an Albany electrician, said. “I felt like I was abused. I felt humiliated. I’ve been a Yankee fan since I was 5 years old.”
Malossi said he’s so upset with the Yankees that he cheered when the Boston Red Sox won the World Series, and is no longer a Bombers fan.
“I don’t care if the Yankees are cursed for the next 100 years,” he said.
He said he was infuriated that he was separated from his blind friend, Lonergran, for 90 minutes. He said Yankees security officers contracted by Burns Internal Security Services, and a city police officer initially refused to fetch his blind friend.
Finally, another city cop allowed him back in the stadium to get Lonergran, who also hails from Albany.
“That’s how they treat a blind guy,” Malossi fumed. Malossi insisted he was not stalking Laura Posada. He said he recognized the catcher’s wife, and took a snapshot of her with other people from 30 feet away on the lower level near home plate.
The suit asks for $3 million for each plaintiff for violating their constitutional rights. New York City, which owns Yankee Stadium, is listed as a defendant along with the Yankee club and the team’s security firms.
Yankees spokesman Howard Rubenstein declined comment. City Law Department deputy Thomas Merrill called it a “frivolous claim.”