That leads some, like Leonard Alkins, president of the Boston branch of the NAACP, to suggest that the BPD’s internal-affairs unit is failing to weed out or retrain bad officers. “An assessment should be done to determine why they are spending so much money on these cases, and whether it could be avoided,” says Alkins. “You might not have to spend unnecessary funds in a lawsuit if you would just do more training or disciplining of those who are continuing to not follow rules and procedures.”
Mayor Menino has recently agreed, after years of refusing, to establish a civilian-review board to act as a watchdog over these internal investigations. Perhaps he had a change of heart — or maybe he just got tired of seeing millions flushed away each year, much of it due to the actions of his police officers.
Busting the $100,000 limit
The figures would be even higher, were Boston not protected by a Massachusetts law that sets a $100,000 cap (including attorney fees) on the liability of municipalities for the negligence of their employees. That figure has not changed since the law was enacted in 1988, even though inflation has reduced the value of $100,000 by nearly half.
The city is therefore kept from paying the real costs in most cases of serious harm. For example, in April 2004 the city paid Christopher Ruggerio $86,250, about half of which went to his attorneys. That figure could have been many times higher if Boston had been liable for the actual costs associated with Ruggerio’s permanent brain damage, which he claims to have suffered when, in 1998, BPD officer James Burgio, on paid detail at Nancy Whisky’s bar, allegedly slammed Ruggerio’s face into a door, beat him bloody and unconscious, and tossed him onto the sidewalk, all for no apparent reason.
Another settlement that might have been much higher was paid in May 2005 to Maureen Ward, who, in 2001, was driving northbound on the expressway. At the same time, BPD officer Emmanuel Dambreville and his partner were chasing a suspect through the streets of Boston, defying three orders to stop the pursuit. The pair ultimately followed the suspect car the wrong way up a ramp and on to the north-bound expressway, violating department policy. The driver they were pursuing slammed head-on into Ward’s car. Ward was injured and her car was demolished; four years later, in May 2005, the city settled with Ward for the maximum she could receive: $100,000.
This settlement limit presumably deters a lot of nonsense litigation, but it also keeps real victims from bringing lawsuits. With no hope of a large award, attorneys rarely take these cases on contingency, and few victims have the means to spend tens of thousands of dollars up-front.
This $100,000 cap does not apply, however, to civil-rights violations, including employee discrimination and wrongful imprisonment, or privacy violations such as unconstitutional strip-searches. Those types of cases cost the city dearly — and the price has only risen over the past 15 months. So far there have been two wrongful-conviction settlements (with Miller and Cowans). Plus, a jury has awarded former BPD Sergeant William Broderick $1.5 million, excluding attorney fees, for his claim that he was fired after he blew the whistle on police abuse of court overtime.
