It’s been a rough year for former police watchdog honcho Richard Emery.
First he got called out for likening the police union to a “stuck pig,” then he got booted from his chairmanship at the Civilian Complaint Review Board for allegedly calling the female CCRB director a “p—sy” — and on Thursday his law firm saw a jury verdict tossed out after a key witness admitted lying to win a wrongful death case against the NYPD.
An appeals court ordered a new civil trial in the case of Bronx teen Leonel Disla, who was fatally shot by cops — because of new phone recordings on which the star witness suggested he was paid to lie on the stand.
The four-judge panel tossed a 2014 jury verdict that found NYPD Sgt. Michael Barnett guilty of excessive force when he fired two rounds into the stomach of the 19-year-old during a 2005 melee.
The city defended the shooting saying Disla was wildly waving a knife that grazed a cop.
Emery Celli attorney Ilann Maazel represented the Disla family and compared the case to the Ferguson, Mo. shooting.
The panel ordered a new trial before any jury award had been reached after obtaining damning phone recordings that caught key witness Juan Polanco saying he had seen Disla with a knife but would provide false testimony to help out the victim’s family, according to court papers.
He suggested he was being compensated for the lie saying, “I ain’t…for free.”
The appeals panel also said Emery’s firm would be disqualified if Polanco was called to testify by either side during the new trial.
“Any factual information that [Polanco] provided to Emery when he was interviewed by one of its attorneys is properly discoverable, and potentially usable at trial,” the panel ruled.
A city spokesman hailed the decision saying, “We are pleased that the Court agreed the city is entitled to a new trial in light of the newly discovered evidence casting serious doubt on the truthfulness of the plaintiff’s key witness. As we have argued in this longstanding matter, the officer’s actions were fully justified under the circumstances.”
Maazel said he was confident that his client would ultimately prevail.
“After hearing 10 witnesses, a unanimous jury found that the NYPD violated the Constitution when a police officer shot and killed Leonel Disla. We respectfully disagree with the court’s decision, and strongly believe that the jury verdict should be upheld. We also disagree with the conditional disqualification of the firm based on the advocate-witness rule,” he said.