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A jury in Long Island has acquitted four police officers accused of using excessive force in a high-profile case involving a cancer patient who suffered a broken arm, which was the subject of a $9 million lawsuit.
The officers from Suffolk County—Charles Tramontana, Jesus Faya, Michael Sweet, and Argand Reyes—were found not to have engaged in police brutality during the arrest of 51-year-old Maryann Ost Chernick. The incident occurred outside her residence in Jericho in 2019, following a 13-mile pursuit. Chernick, who stood at 5-foot-6 and weighed 110 pounds, was reportedly under the influence of prescription medications at the time, according to the federal jury’s verdict on Tuesday.
Although Chernick passed away roughly a year after the arrest, her husband continued to pursue the lawsuit on her behalf.
“The jury confirmed what we have consistently maintained—that our officers acted appropriately and within the legal boundaries,” stated the Suffolk district attorney’s office in response to the verdict.
Chernick, who was undergoing treatment for stomach cancer and taking prescribed painkillers, allegedly reversed her car into a CVS pharmacy on February 9, 2019, and left the scene without stopping, as detailed in court records.
A witness called the police, who caught up with her on the Long Island Expressway, but she ignored their lights and sirens the whole way home and then blew through the security gate and stopped in her driveway, according to court papers.
Her lawyers argued that Chernick, who later pleaded guilty to driving under the influence, thought the cops were responding to something else, despite following her all the way home.
The officers confronted her as she tried to punch in her garage keycode, brought her to the ground and slapped on the cuffs, but the takedown left her face bloodied and fractured her right arm so badly it required eight hours of surgery, her camp said.
After a short deliberation, the jury decided it couldn’t agree that the officers used excessive force.
I was very disappointed,” said Chernick’s widower, Ira Chernick, 75, to The Post on Sunday.
“There was no justice for her, what they did to her,” he said. “Although they got excused, I would like to think they learned their lesson.”