At ‘moving’ hearing, judge approves $3.75M settlement against Suffolk police

A federal judge has approved a $3.75 million settlement against the Suffolk County Police, requiring the department to improve training and background checks of officers and publish more data about who they pull over in traffic stops.

The emotional Friday proceeding was the final step in an eight-year lawsuit that started after Latino drivers were stopped by Sgt. Scott Greene and extorted for cash. Twenty-one Latino drivers sued the county alleging that police ignored evidence of Greene’s “stop-and-rob” scheme.

Eighteen of the 21 unnamed plaintiffs robbed by Greene attended Friday’s hearing. They told Judge William F. Kuntz II about what it meant to finally finish this chapter of their life.

“During the eight years of this lawsuit, I was at each meeting I was asked to attend, spending a lot of time on the lawsuit,” Beatriz Ramirez, one of the plaintiffs, told reporters in Spanish before the proceeding.

“I am very proud to be a part of this lawsuit demanding that police change their practices. I’m sure that the change will result in a better life for me and the members of my community. I want justice for my community,” she said.

Kuntz’s approval of the class action settlement was a formality that declared the settlement “fair,” but lawyers present called it “moving.”

“One of our plaintiffs testified about when he had been stopped by SCPD, his 3-year-old boy was in the car with him and the officers wouldn't even let his boy go somewhere to go to the bathroom and they took the father away in handcuffs, and how demeaning it felt,” said Andrew Case, an attorney for LatinoJustice, the Manhattan-based civil rights organization that brought the lawsuit.

Hector Sanchez Monroy, the man who testified, brought his son to witness the proceeding.

“These are people who spent eight, nine years going to meetings, talking with lawyers, working with each other,” Case said. “To have this in a courtroom with and showing their support for what the court approved was a pretty moving experience.”

The agreement with LatinoJustice adds additional requirements on top of a 2013 agreement that demanded police reforms and federal oversight.

Police struggled to comply with even the most basic terms of the agreement, according to correspondence between Suffolk and the Department of Justice. For example, the DOJ required that the county collect and analyze traffic stop data. However, the county admitted before U.S. Magistrate Louis Bloom that the data it collected was unreliable and was never analyzed.

In an emailed statement, Suffolk County Spokesperson Marykate Guilfoyle claimed the work of this agreement was already in progress.

“This settlement codifies the historic work already underway as part of our police reform and reinvention plan,” she wrote. “Transparency and accountability is of the utmost importance and we will continue to push forward initiatives that ensure fair and just policing for all.”

Following a state-mandated police reform in 2021, the county did publish an online dashboard of traffic stop data. However, it did not include license plate information, the reason people were searched, and actions officers took. The dashboard went offline following a debilitating cyberattack last summer.

On top of improving this type of data collection, the $3.75 million settlement payout includes $2.25 million in attorney fees and a $75,000 payment to each of the named plaintiffs.