In the morning of April 8th, 2015, Atlanta Hawks’ guard, Thabo Sefolosha was outside of a New York nightclub with a teammate when they were approached by police officers who had been called to the scene due to the stabbing of then Indiana Pacer, Chris Copeland, in a separate incident. After an altercation in which the officers claimed that the teammates were interfering with a crime scene, Sefolosha was arrested and suffered a broken fibula and ligament damage. Those injuries ended his season, and he missed the team’s remaining games and postseason run to the conference finals.
Sefolosha was charged with misdemeanor obstructing government administration, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. He was offered a plea deal that would have dismissed the charges if he agreed to a day of community service, a deal which he refused as he wanted to fight to clear his name. Six months after the incident, a jury acquitted him of all charges and he filed a lawsuit seeking $50 million in damages.
In April of 2017, two years after the incident, he reached a $4.5 million settlement agreement with the five officers he sued, as reported by ESPN.com, for false arrest, excessive force, malicious prosecution and false imprisonment.
“This settlement is not a concession that Mr. Sefolosha was blameless in this matter and there was no admission of liability by the defendants, but in light of the gravity of his injuries, the potential impact on his career as a professional athlete and the challenge for a jury in sorting out the facts in this incident, the resolution of the case was in the best interests of the city,” said The New York City Law Department in a statement at the time.
While Sefolosha went on to play for five more years in the NBA, the scars of the incident remain with the fifteen-year NBA veteran, ones that resurfaced with the murder of George Floyd. But Sefolosha’s experience also shed a light on the aftermath of incidents involving allegations of police brutality.
ProPublica explored this situation in an intricately detailed story that you can read here. In this story, they explored and exposed just how little NYPD officers were personally punished and held responsible for injuries suffered by victims of police brutality.
Despite being awarded $4.5 million, the officers involved in Sefolosha’s case faced little punishment. Per that story “The city had insisted during the case that the officers were blameless, and they ended up facing no significant punishment.” They weren’t charged with a crime, nor were they required to pay any part of the settlement.
Out of the 45 cases that ProPublica reviewed, a loss of 15 vacation days was the harshest penalty that an officer received, and that was for knocking a teenager out. The incident had been recorded and the city settled with the victim for $200,000.
In Sefolosha’s case, the video showed the officer who had been arguing with the Hawks’ guard take him down and use his baton on his leg. In their review, the NYC civilian oversight board deemed officer Johnpaul Giacona guilty of abuse of authority. But sadly, per ProPublica, both the board and the NYPD “declined to file disciplinary charges against him and instead left any penalties to the discretion of his commanding officer.”
The police are “just too comfortable,” said Sefolosha in the interview with ProPublica. “They’re just untouchable.”
Sefolosha might be right in that claim, as many of the officers escape harsh punishments and arrest. Some are fired for their actions, such as Officer Daniel Pantaleo who used an illegal chokehold on Eric Garner and killed him, all for the crime of allegedly selling loose cigarettes. And while Pantaleo’s career with the NYPD was terminated, he can get another job. The Garner family lost their son, father and husband for good. There is no comparison in their fates.
“To get a settlement was a small victory. But big picture, it’s a small drop,” Sefolosha told ProPublica. “When are people going to be held accountable? You have to have repercussions. They’re going to do it over and over again.”
Unfortunately for those who are victims of police brutality, Sefolosha’s statement appears to remain prophetic.
