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Former Officers Aldrin Lamboy and Anthony Ferraioli, who sued the city in federal court for violations of their civil rights involving a Police Benevolent Association election in June 2008, are to share $775,000 in a settlement approved by the city’s insurer, Selective Insurance, spokesman Thom Ammirato said in a release this afternoon.
Lamboy is to receive $235,000, Ferraioli will get $150,000 and his wife Dawn Fray will get $25,000, Ammirato said.
The remainder of the money will be used for legal fees and reimbursement for disbursements by the litigating parties, he said.
Ferraioli and Lamboy charged that Zisa punished them for failing to support his candidate in the 2008 PBA delegate election. Zisa, the civil rights complaint alleges, made it clear that he wanted Detective Tina Clouse to win the election. Lamboy and Ferraioli supported rival candidate Officer Joseph Inglima.
Ferraioli alleged that shortly after the 2008 election he was assigned to a walking beat even though Zisa knew that he injured his foot earlier that year, which made walking difficult.
Lamboy alleged that Zisa demoted him and took him off a motorcycle patrol.
Fray had her personal computer seized from her home by city police as part of an internal investigation into a blog Ferraioli was said to have produced that was critical of Zisa.
Councilman and Police Commissioner David E. Sims said the end of the Ferraioli and Lamboy litigation “moves us one step closer to ending a very negative and expensive chapter in the city’s history.
“The problems within the police department under the former chief and his cronies reflects an abuse of power that not only divided the department, but separated the department from the city’s residents,” he said.
Sims he hopes the city “will emerge as a more unified community that does not have to fear its police department but will instead respect the hard work the police do to keep our streets safe.”
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