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Attorney Phillip Palacio: George Street Wants to Sue
posted (February 13, 2012)
And while incumbent area representative Michael Finnegan is particularly outspoken - his PUP opponent Phillip Palacio - who is an attorney - has gone one step further: he's taken on the case of the four men who were beaten.

He today held a street side press conference where he told us that he intends to sue the police department:..

Phillip Palacio - Attorney for Beaten Men
"Well, the gentlemen were alleging that it was members from the Gang Suppression Unit who had entered the building and beat them up, but the leader of the Gang Suppression Unit has denied this. What we have done so far is that everybody has been taken to get medical attention, and in terms of Shawn Allay, his injuries were certified as harm. For Brandon Tillett, his injuries were certified as grievous harm; what happened is that he had a broken shoulder from the beating. And Albert Fuentes, he suffered a broken elbow; his injuries have been classified also as grievous harm. In term of Lennard Meyers, his injuries were classified as wounding. He received a split in the head. What we have been doing so far, I have instructed and advised them to make criminal reports. We tried to make those reports at the patrol branch. The officers did not want to take the reports. They advised us to go over to the internal affairs office. And when we went over to the internal affairs office, the person in charge advised that we needed to bring in some medico-legal forms. But, they have instructed me to issue notice of intention to sue the commissioner of police and also the attorney general. We don't know who the officers are; they have 3 names in terms of the officers."

Jules Vasquez
"Those names are associated with the GSU?"

Phillip Palacio
"Yes, those names are associated with the GSU. I have also been instructed by the home-owner, Mrs. Barbara Frazer. And what happened is that people from the Internal Affairs of the Police Department have gone over to the Dean Street apartment, and they had fixed up the doors that were kicked in and that kind of thing. So in our view, that's a kind of concession of some sort, that there was some involvement with the police, because it was the police who went there and fixed up the doors."

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