Civil suit in NYPD informant's death opens

Police threw away the life of 20-year-old informant Anthony Velez in 2004 by tipping off his status during a gun and drug bust he helped set up, a lawyer told jurors as an unusual civil suit brought by Velez' mother began Monday in Brooklyn federal court.

Velez was fatally shot in Brooklyn less than two hours after the NYPD raided an apartment and arrested two other occupants but released him and, in a dying declaration, allegedly said the son of a woman who lived in the apartment had killed him.

"It was utterly reckless if not worse to hang Anthony out in this way and not take him in," said lawyer Michael O'Neill, who contends the case highlights lack of training on protecting informants. "It's utterly shocking."

But a lawyer for the city and two police officers told the jury that Velez himself may have told too many people that he was an informant, and that his family wouldn't be able to prove that he was killed because of police mishandling.

"No one knows why he was shot," city lawyer Kim Savino argued. "It could have been drug-related. It could have been a case of mistaken identity."

Velez was a part-time sales clerk and father of a 1-year-old boy. His family is suing the city and two cops -- Officer Rudolph Hall, Velez' NYPD handler and now a sergeant, and Sgt. Michael Ruggiero, now retired, in charge of the 2004 bust.

No one has ever been charged with Velez' Feb. 22, 2004, killing. City lawyers concede that police reports say he accused a man named "Sonny" -- the street name of the son of a woman arrested in the apartment -- as he was dying, but say they aren't sure of the origin of that account.

In testimony, Ruggiero said Velez had told them about the apartment and also called in the tip to a reward hotline. Ruggiero led a six-man squad to the apartment after also learning that a parole violator was there.

He said the police didn't expect Velez to be present, and he put him in the hallway with another cop, who may not have known he was an informant, while the rest of the squad searched the apartment. Ruggiero said that officer made the decision to release Velez, without consulting his sergeant.

Ruggiero also told a skeptical O'Neill that he didn't think releasing Velez exposed him, and said he had no personal experience with "rats and snitches" getting killed when they were exposed. "Only on TV," he said.