NJ: Man beaten by Passaic cop got $350,000 settlement



Ronnie Holloway, the schizophrenic man beaten by Passaic Police Officer Joseph Rios III during an arrest two years ago, accepted a $350,000 settlement earlier this year in which he agreed not to sue the city, documents show.

The settlement, obtained by The Record and Herald News on Friday, precludes Holloway or any of his heirs from collecting further damages from the city, the Passaic Police Department, Rios, or his partner during the arrest, Erica Rivera.

Rios was acquitted last week of police brutality charges in state court, and the settlement prohibits Holloway from any further legal action, such as filing a civil rights lawsuit in U.S. District Court. The settlement also releases the city from responsibility for future medical costs associated with the beating.

Taxpayers are still not off the hook, however. Rios was suspended for two years without pay while awaiting trial. Now that he's been acquitted, Rios is seeking reinstatement — and that will likely cost the city nearly $200,000 in back pay, based on his salary of $97,294.

"Our position is that Officer Rios should be reinstated as soon as we work out the details," said his attorney, Anthony Iacullo. "We plan to meet with Mayor Blanco, the City Council and Chief Diaz sometime next week."

The city is not expected to oppose Rios' reinstatement, although the timing of his return to the department could not be worse. The city is stuck in a budget crisis and planning the layoff of 45 employees beginning Aug. 14.

Rios, a seven-year veteran of the Passaic Police Department and an Iraq war veteran, was accused of beating Holloway, a diagnosed schizophrenic, after spotting the man standing on the corner of Main Avenue and Sumner Street around 11 a.m. on May 29, 2009. Rios was riding with Rivera, who spotted the man with no shirt on underneath his hooded sweat shirt and ordered him to "zip up."

When Holloway didn't immediately comply and words were exchanged, Rios got out of his squad car and repeatedly beat Holloway with his nightstick, then threw him across the hood of the car. Holloway was arrested, spent the night in jail, but was never charged.

The altercation was captured on a surveillance video camera located outside a tavern on the corner. The incident made national headlines when the video went viral, and the Passaic County Prosecutor's Office began an investigation, which led to his indictment on charges of aggravated assault and official misconduct.

After a nine-day bench trial, Judge Donald J. Volkert Jr. cleared Rios of both charges. In his verdict, Volkert acknowledged that the video shows Rios using a lot of force, but said it was a "textbook" case of police using their power to subdue an unruly man.

Many Passaic residents disagree and are threatening to protest at City Hall when Iacullo meets with city officials next week.

"That's going to open up a whole can of worms," said Kasim Washington, a community activist and onetime City Council candidate. Washington says it would be dangerous for Rios to be put back on patrol.

"We don't want him coming back wearing a Superman's 'S' on his chest," Washington said. "Think about the first time he has to make an arrest. Our position is that he should be transferred out of the city. We don't want him in the city no more."

Holloway, who lived with his mother on Burgess Place off Main Avenue, has since moved. The settlement agreement precludes him, his friends or any family member from talking about the case to the media.

Keith Furlong, a spokesman for the city, said the city had no legal grounds to oppose Rios' reinstatement. But as of late Friday he hadn't heard of any meeting between Rios and city officials.

Original report here

Another account of what happened:

New Jersey cops appear to specialize in unprovoked assaults on harmless people who suffer from mental illness.

On May 29, 2009, Ronnie Holloway was standing on a street corner near a restaurant when Officers Joseph Rios III and Erica Rivera pulled up in a cop car and berated the 49-year-old man for having his jacket unzipped. As is usually the case in such encounters, things went dramatically downhill in a hurry.

Rios, an Iraq combat veteran, appeared to be on "contact patrol" – that is, prowling the neighborhood looking for an excuse to throw somebody to the ground. Holloway, an unassuming man on medication for schizophrenia, presented a perfect target of opportunity.

A video recording of the event shows Holloway meekly zipping up his jacket. As he did so, Rivera exits the vehicle and distracts Holloway while Rios blind-sides him, slamming him to the ground and beating him repeatedly with his fists and baton. After a brief pause, Holloway – who is clearly terrified, but not putting up any physical resistance – is able to rise to his feet before being slammed onto the hood of the police car.

"I didn't know if I was going to see tomorrow at that point," Holloway later said of the assault, which left him battered and bloody and with a serious injury to one of his eyes. The beating continued until backup – in the form of two additional police cars – arrived to help drag Holloway off to jail.

Despite the fact that he had behaved like a properly docile Mundane, absorbing an unprovoked beating without making any effort to flee or fight back, Holloway was charged with resisting arrest and "wandering," supposedly in search of narcotics.

In filing their official report of the incident, Rios and his partner did what police in such circumstances always do: They committed perjury in the form of "creative writing." Rios claimed that when he and Rivera told Holloway to leave the corner, Holloway "verbally challenged" them. "Step on the sidewalk, you'll see," Holloway supposedly said to Rios, assuming a "fighting stance" as he did so.

Rios had no right or authority to demand that Holloway – who had done nothing to anybody – leave the street corner. It's also clear from the video that the beating began before Holloway would have had an opportunity to fling a verbal "challenge" at Rios. Some measure of Rios's reliability as a witness is found in the fact that his Use of Force Report claims that Holloway wasn't injured in the attack.

After the May 29 assault was publicized, the Passaic Police Department "pulled a Mubarak," as it were: They defied public outrage for as long as possible, keeping Rios on active duty, and then suspending both Rios and Rivera (the latter for failing a fraudulent claim of a job-related injury during the incident) when the outrage failed to dissipate.

Owing entirely to public pressure put on the Passaic municipal government, Rios has been charged with aggravated assault and official misconduct. He has entered a plea of "not guilty by virtue of a government-provided wardrobe." "I did what was proper," lied Rios in a June 2009 press conference. "I did what I was trained to do under circumstances that existed at that time. I stand by my actions."

His attorney, Anthony J. Iacullo, defended the assault as a pre-emptive strike against some unspecified threat posed by an uppity Mundane: "Based upon what Officer Rios feared might happen, and based upon his not submitting to arrest, the actions were taken."

Holloway's "resistance" consisted of cringing and covering up in confusion and terror as Rios rained down punches and baton strikes. In New Jersey – as is the case elsewhere in the Soyuz – even such minimal and reflexive attempts to protect one's self from State-sanctified violence is treated as a criminal offense.

Original report here



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