Dean Taylor, a 65-year-old Black man, stood on the sidewalk across the street from the scene of the drive-by shooting, recording the activity with his phone. Taylor continued to do so for some time, before Buffalo police officers Kyle T Moriarity and Christopher Bridgett decided they wanted him to stop. Moriarty approached Taylor and told him to move, according to testimony. Taylor replied that he had a right to stand on a public sidewalk and record the scene.

Taylor said an officer punched him in the face “three or four times” and tackled him to the ground. He lost consciousness, then came to “with a whole bunch of people” on him. He was handcuffed, wrestled into the back of a patrol car and taken downtown, where he was strip-searched and jailed overnight. The next day he was charged with resisting arrest, obstruction of governmental administration, harassment and disorderly conduct.

Outcome

The charges against Taylor were dismissed in city court a month later.

Taylor filed a complaint with the Buffalo Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division. In January 2020 then-Police Commissioner Byron Lockwood ruled Taylor’s allegation of excessive use of force “not sustained” — that is, there was not enough evidence to determine the officers’ guilt or innocence — but reprimanded the officers for “denying [Taylor his] first amendment rights.”

A month after that finding, Taylor sued the city, Lockwood, Moriarty, Bridgett and the other officers who piled on top of him. He accused them of assault, false arrest and imprisonment, and violating his constitutional rights.

Five years later, the case went to trial before a jury, which ruled in favor of the cops and the city. Taylor’s attorney, Blake Zaccagnino of the firm Shaw & Shaw, filed a post-trial motion asking DelMonte to set aside the jury’s decision, arguing that the jury’s verdict was contrary to the weight of the evidence.

In overturning the verdict, the judge wrote the cops “knew the plaintiff was entirely within his constitutional rights to videotape” police activity at the scene of the shooting. He said the city’s attorneys failed to provide evidence that Taylor’s presence harassed or discomfited anyone — except perhaps Moriarity and Bridgett, who “did express their own personal internal distaste for what the plaintiff was doing,” DelMonte wrote.

“[T]here was no legally legitimate basis for any ‘reasonably prudent person’ to find or believe that probable cause existed to confront the plaintiff and place him under arrest,” DelMonte concluded.

DelMonte set aside the jury’s decision, found in favor of Taylor, and ordered a new trial solely for the purpose of determining how much the city should pay in damages.

James Kistner was having breakfast with his sons at his Buffalo East Side home on New Year’s Day 2017 when he noticed police at his apartment across the street.

They finished breakfast before Kistner walked outside to find out what might have caused the police presence at the apartment on Schmarbeck Avenue.

Kistner walks a few feet toward a second police cruiser that begins to back up. He gets within a foot and he throws out his arms to brace for what was about to happen: the cruiser runs into him, forcibly knocking him to the ground. No one moves. None of the officers run to check on Kistner. More than 15 seconds pass before officers get out and walk toward Kistner, who is lying on the ground yelling at his son to call 911.

Earl, Kistner’s son, runs over, sees that his dad is on the ground with his legs pushed out between the two wheels of the left side of the SUV and then walks back to the sidewalk to call 911.

Not only was Kistner struck by a police SUV and injured, but officers surrounding Kistner’s son while he called 911, shoved him around and took his phone. Police cancelled the ambulance call. An officer picks up Kistner off the ground, they cuff him and detain him in the second police cruiser that returned to the scene. Police charged Kistner with felony criminal mischief and a disorderly conduct violation.

Officers transported Kistner to ECMC, where they chained him to a gurney, and left to speak with medical staff. The officers tried to get Kistner admitted in the psych ward at ECMC, claiming he attacked the police cruiser. Kistner said the nurse told him that the officers claimed he jumped onto the police cruiser. ECMC did not admit Kistner, so police brought him to central booking where he was fingerprinted, searched and photographed. He was charged with felony criminal mischief in the third degree for the damage to the mirror and disorderly conduct.

Kistner thought he would get an appearance ticket for some violation, but the officers would eventually bring him back to ECMC to try to get him admitted a second time. Kistner again denied to a doctor that he attacked a police car and said he has video to prove it. The doctor called a family friend of the Kistners, who confirmed that the video shows Kistner being struck by the police car.

Less than an hour later, ECMC nurses told Kistner he was free to leave.

Kistner’s attorney said the officers conspired to cover up the incident to avoid discipline for hitting Kistner with a police cruiser.

Outcome

Prosecutors dismissed the charges against Kistner once they saw the video evidence.

Kistner’s attorney said as far as he knows the officers were never disciplined.

Kistner said he filed a complaint with internal affairs but was ignored. So, he decided to sue the City of Buffalo, the police commissioner and police officers Lauren McDermott, Jenny Velez, Karl Schultz, Kyle Moriarty and David T. Santana. Pending Common Council approval, James and Earl Kistner will be receiving $1,100,000 as a result of the settlement from the lawsuit.