The city will have to shell out $11 million to a former cop who was permanently disabled in a 2006 crash when his partner sped through a red light while responding to a 911 call and crashed into two other vehicles.
After a jury found the city 100 percent responsible for Joseph Sosa’s debilitating injuries last summer, city lawyers challenged the award. But a Manhattan judge on Tuesday sided with the injured cop and upheld the hefty payout.
“It’s a significant amount of money,” said Sosa’s attorney, Richard Gross. “But he’s never going to be all right. He had a lot of injuries — carpal tunnel syndrome with a surgery that failed, very little use of his dominant hand, multiple herniated discs in his lower back.”
The married dad of a 9-year-old girl “takes heavy medication; that’s the only way he can control the pain,” Gross said.
Sosa’s partner, Fernando Loza, was going 55 to 60 mph in a 35-mph zone northbound on Central Park West across 97th Street, an expert witness said.
Sosa, who joined the force in 2000, said in a sworn deposition that he twice told his partner to slow down.
The 24th Precinct patrolmen were providing backup to a call about a suicidal person on July 10, 2006, around 11 p.m.
The cruiser was T-boned by a van after blowing the light, and then collided with a livery cab.
“The middle of the police car was pretty much decimated,” Gross said.
The retired cop recalled the horrifying impact when the cruiser hit the other vehicles.
“It’s like a scene from the movies. It was very heavy. I mean, I had nightmares after the accident many times,” Sosa recalled in court papers.
Several eyewitnesses said Loza was driving with his emergency lights and sirens off, but both cops claimed they had turned on the warning signals.
Loza claimed he was driving 20 mph. He had only minor injuries, and he was released from the case on a technicality.
Sosa testified that his injuries have prevented him from picking up his daughter and performing simple tasks like using an ATM.
Justice Manuel Mendez agreed in a ruling released Tuesday that the verdict and award were fair.
Mendez cited Loza’s driving — and the fact that the NYPD destroyed a black box in the squad car that could have provided evidence.
A spokesman for the city’s Law Department said, “We are reviewing our options.”
Additional reporting by Erin Calabrese