Two NYPD detectives are “testilying” in their accounts of a police chase that left a 21-year-old Brooklyn woman brain damaged, according to a new court filing.
Gumshoes William Sciara and Dino Anselmo provided the alleged false testimony, claiming they couldn’t remember key details of the 2014 chase, in depositions taken in Natalie Ferber’s lawsuit against them and the city, legal papers say.
The detectives were being aided by city attorney Yael Barbibay who is encouraging them to commit perjury, legal papers claim.
Ferber’s lawyer filed a motion earlier this month to have the detectives’ depositions striken “on the grounds that they have willfully frustrated discovery and made a mockery of court orders regarding discovery.”
Ferber was a passenger in a car driven by her mother, Nancy Lawrence, which was struck by a dollar van being chased by Sciara and Anselmo. The pair had pulled over the van’s driver because they were looking for a white van used in some area robberies, court papers say.
The detectives were ordered three times to call off the Brooklyn chase, but claim they never heard the radio call to do so, court papers claim.
Ferber’s mother is an NYPD sergeant, who was off duty at the time of the accident. Her father is a retired NYPD lieutenant.
A spokesman for the city Law Department said the “claims against the city’s attorney are unfounded and we will vigorously defend all claims against the city in this lawsuit.”