Text size:

With charges dismissed, Tasered teen to sue NYPD

BY ROCCO PARASCANDOLA | rocco.parascandola@newsday.com

December 12, 2007

Alexander Lombard III got an early Christmas gift: The 18-year-old's summons for disorderly conduct has been dismissed. But his father, a retired New York Police Department lieutenant who now is a lawyer, says there is no reason to celebrate and he is determined that someone be held accountable for what he contends was a trumped-up case against his son.

Alexander Lombard Jr., 48, has filed a notice of claim notifying the city of his intention to file a lawsuit stemming from an August night when police used a Taser on his son -- causing marks that still showed three months later, he says.

The younger Lombard got into hot water after police said they responded to a large disturbance Aug. 19 at a barbecue in Harlem. Lombard, then 17, was stunned in the ankle with a Taser to subdue him, police said at the time.

Lombard's father said his son was trying to get away from the melee, which started when two girls got into a fight and someone threw something at a police officer.

The teen was zapped with the Taser on the rib cage, face, neck and shoulder, beaten with a nightstick and put in a choke hold, both the father and son say. The elder Lombard has photographs that he says prove his son was shocked multiple times with a Taser.

The summons was dismissed on Friday for insufficiency, meaning the paperwork filed by police did not fully explain why the summons was issued.

Police had no comment Tuesday. The officer and the sergeant could not be reached for comment. Internal Affairs, meanwhile, is investigating the use of the Taser.

Alexander Lombard III now is studying accounting at a New England college. He said he's so angry about what happened that he has removed from his key chain a memento -- a lieutenant's police shield his father had given him.

"What's the point in putting it back on?" he said. "They laughed at me when I showed it to them that night. It's not right what happened."

His mother, however, hopes he can get past the anger, given his father's background.

"He grew up around police officers," said the mother, Mita Mingues-Lombard, 46. "Since he was little, he went to police parties. What happened to him is wrong, but we know people who are good police officers."