Metro

City pays Playmate $1.2M after jury rules she was victim of excessive force by NYPD

She stuck to her guns — and it paid off big time.

Busty former Playboy Playmate Stephanie Adams was awarded $1.2 million today after a Manhattan civil jury ruled she was the victim of excessive force by the NYPD.

“I waited six years for this,” an emotional Adams said after the jury gave her $350,000 more than her lawyer had asked for from the 2006 run-in with cops, which was sparked when a cabby told cops the first openly lesbian Playmate threatened to shoot him — even though she sat in the back of his cab in a skimpy, skintight outfit that could barely conceal a cigarette lighter.

The astrologer niece of a former New Jersey police commissioner, Adams said she was traumatized by the manhandling by cops and by having guns pointed at her — despite her own Web site indicating she has lots of experience handling weapons.

In one photo, she’s behind the wheel of an NYPD patrol car, in others she’s shooting rifles — and in another (left), she’s dressed as a foxy cop, wearing short shorts and a midriff-baring low-cut top with a police belt and hat, while holding up a 9mm handgun.

The city had contended police followed proper procedure and Adams’ claims of being traumatized by the incident were overblown — citing the sexy pictures of the former centerfold with guns on her Web site, Goddessy.com.

A juror who asked not to be identified called the pictures “a smokescreen,” and said that for the panel, the smoking gun was the spine and neck injuries the spirituality writer suffered in the incident.

“No one should be treated that way,” the juror said.

“I’m very gratified,” the lanky beauty said, adding that for her, the case wasn’t about cash, “it was about justice.”

Adams testified that the driver started cursing at her and threatening her, so she called 911 for help — and the crazed cabby followed suit, but made up a tale that she had threatened to shoot him.

Five officers were sent to the scene on high alert, and Adams had several guns pointed at her by plainclothes cops.

She testified that they searched her bags and, despite her following their orders not to move and to keep her hands up, one of them shoved her face down in the street, and kept her there with pressure on her neck and her lower back.

He “mashed my face,” she testified.

Sgt. John Rajan testified that she had obeyed his order not to move, but didn’t react when he told her to lieon the ground, so he had to make her do so with “a controlled drop to the ground.”

“We didn’t know if she had a firearm,” Rajan testified — but he seemed to stumble when he was asked by trial lawyer Nina Neumunz why he hadn’t just put her up against a car or a wall to frisk her.