Police Misconduct/Civil Rights
Police brutality
Bob Farrell (name changed to preserve confidentiality) was a veterinarian working in Hartford for the federal government. After work one day, he got into a dispute with a tow truck driver (who was in plain view of many other people on the street who had just gotten off of work) who was about to tow Farrell’s car from a parking space.
The tow truck driver started yelling at Dr. Farrell; subsequently, a Hartford police officer appeared and without provocation he took out his black jack and struck Dr. Farrell across the jaw. Another officer proceeded to help to handcuff Dr. Farrell, who was not resisting. He was then thrown against a concrete wall, in full view of people both inside and outside of the state office building where he worked, before being shoved head first into a police cruiser.
Dr. Farrell, in addition to the public humiliation that he received, suffered multiple fractures of his jaw. His mouth was wired shut for seven weeks, and he was fed liquid food during that time. Additionally, Dr. Farrell lost his job as a veterinarian with the United States Department of Agriculture as a result of his reporting of the incident and its aftermath.
Spinella & Associates aggressively took on Dr. Farrell's case. After a protracted trial in federal court, they extracted a settlement which, at the time, was the largest settlement paid by the City of Hartford in vindication of an individual's civil rights.
The Farrell case was one of the first high-profile police misconduct cases that Spinella & Associates took on, and it served as a launching pad for the many diverse and high-profile police misconduct and civil rights cases that they have taken on since that time.