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Man Sues Yonkers Officer For $3 Million In Excessive Force Suit

YONKERS, N.Y. – A homeless man has filed an excessive force lawsuit against a veteran Yonkers police officer, claiming he was beaten unconscious after an October traffic stop. 

A man is suing for $3 million after he claims a Yonkers police officer used excessive force during an arrest.

A man is suing for $3 million after he claims a Yonkers police officer used excessive force during an arrest.

Photo Credit: Matt Bultman

In his lawsuit, Richie Nadal alleged Officer William Pataky, a 15-year member of the Yonkers Police Department, hit him multiple times with an unknown object, giving him a concussion and splitting open the back of his head.

The lawsuit was filed earlier this year in U.S. District Court in White Plains.

Pataky could not be reached for comment Wednesday. The department cannot comment on pending litigation, a Yonkers police spokesman said. 

In court documents, Nadal said he was a passenger in a vehicle that was involved in a minor traffic accident Oct. 3 along Warburton Avenue.   Several Yonkers police officers responded and searched the vehicle’s occupants, he said. 

Nadal, who listed his residence as the Grasslands Homeless Shelter in Valhalla, said Pataky suddenly began striking him on the right side of the head, knocking him to the ground. Once on the ground, Nadal said the officer continued to hit him across the forehead, knocking him unconscious.

Nadal was later taken to St. Joseph’s Medical Center, where he received bandages and treatment for a wound on the right side of his head, according to court documents.

He was eventually arrested and charged with seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, resisting arrest and obstruction of governmental administration, all misdemeanors, court records show. 

Nadal pleaded guilty to the criminal possession charge in Yonkers City Court and was sentenced to five months in Westchester County Jail.

In the lawsuit, Nadal said he was seeking $1.5 million in damages for his pain and suffering and another $1.5 million in punitive damages. 

“I want the court to compensate me for the disfigurement of my head due to my injuries inflicted,” he wrote. “I also want the court to consider the nightmares I have of the Yonkers Police Department wanting to assault me and hurt me again.”

The original lawsuit also named the City of Yonkers and four other city police officers as defendants, but U.S. District Court Judge Vincent Briccetti dismissed those claims in February.

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