Carlos Miller
We’ve seen so many police abuse lawsuits settled before making it to trial where cops admit no wrongdoing while guiltily dishing out thousands of taxpayer dollars that it’s surprising to see one actually make it to trial.
And it’s absolutely flabbergasting to see it result in a cop ordered personably liable.
The cop is none other than Sterling Wheaton of the Atlantic City Police Department, whom we became familiar with back in September when he drove up to a group of five fellow officers beating on a suspect and sicced his dog on him in an incident caught on surveillance video.
Then we later learned that Wheaton was already named a defendant in three unrelated lawsuits alleging abuse over the five previous years, including one where he is accused of ripping the phone out of the hands of woman recording him, only for her never to see the phone again.
Now we are learning that another of those three lawsuits involved him beating up a prosecutor from the state attorney’s office nonetheless, which is probably the last person you want to beat up if you’re one of these asshole cops like Wheaton who think they can do whatever they want.
A jury awarded Michael Troso $500,000, half which the city must pay, the other half which Wheaton must pay, who incredulously, is still employed by the Atlantic City Police Department, despite the liability he has proven to be.
He still has three pending lawsuits, including the latest one from the video below.
According to the Press of Atlantic City:
Michael Troso was a deputy state attorney general when he was arrested at the Trump Marina Restaurant on Aug. 19, 2008. Troso charged that he was beaten by the officers and falsely arrested the night of his bachelor party.
As a result of the charges, Troso lost his job and had a shadow cast over his wedding, attorney William Buckman said.
Wheaten must pay half of the award, or $250,000 in compensatory damages. The jury found he did not owe punitive damages, which are assessed to punish a defendant.
The city is responsible for the other half.
Treso is a now a DUI attorney,
And Wheaten is somehow still a cop, despite the numerous internal affairs investigations that have gone nowhere and the constant lawsuits, not to mention the fact that he was on a list in 2010 of cops who were on the verge of getting laid off, back when he was making $64,000 -a-year.
For a city that was considering laying off 40 police officers to help meet a budget deficit of more than $10 million, they sure as hell are not doing themselves any favors by keeping Wheaten on the payroll.
And now that he needs to pay Troso $250,000, we can certain he will be working all the overtime he can get.
So we’ll probably be hearing from him again.
