A Queens man who was falsely arrested in a landlord-tenant dispute suffered a stroke in police custody last year after he was refused medical attention and ignored for hours, a blockbuster, $540 million lawsuit charges.
Gerardo Mayol begged cops at the 104th Precinct in Ridgewood to let him use the bathroom, and later pleaded with them to take him to a hospital after he became dizzy and had trouble breathing, according to the suit filed yesterday in Brooklyn federal court.
But instead, the officers mocked and threatened him as he suffered, neglecting him even as they transported him to Central Booking, where he finally lost consciousness, and passed out on the floor of his cell, the suit says.
Mayol, a limousine driver, awoke at Queens General Hospital, where doctors determined that he had suffered a stroke. He was later transferred to Elmhurst Hospital, where he remained for 20 days because his injuries were so severe.
At one point, a cop told Mayol that if he urinated on the floor, “he was going to use Mr. Mayol’s sweater to clean it up and then put his sweater back on him,” according to the lawsuit.
“The facts of this case are outrageous and we will hold those accountable responsible,” said Mayol’s lawyer Joseph Tacopina.
Mayol, in court papers, said his police custody torment began in January 2009 after he stepped in the middle of a landlord-tenant dispute between a neighbor and the landlady at his apartment building in Ridgewood.
Mayol was scheduled to testify in eviction proceedings against Jessica Varney, who had been accused of disruptive and unseemly conduct as a tenant. But before the hearing began, Varney threatened Mayol, saying she would retaliate against him for testifying, according to the lawsuit.
A few days later, she filled a stalking and harassment complaint against Mayol, who claims in his suit that Varney had a secret relationship with a sergeant at the precinct. Weeks later, Mayol was arrested on the charges, and his nightmare began.
The charges were eventually dismissed by a judge, but not before Mayol said he was forced to cower and hide in his apartment when Varbey’s cop-boyfriend came and banged on his door days after his release from the hospital, Tacopina said.