Police officer allowed to sue for fall in city lot
A police officer who tripped and fell while pursuing a suspect in a vacant New York City lot is allowed to continue his lawsuit against the city for negligence, the Brooklyn Appellate court ruled.
While on foot pursuit, Sgt. Donald Mulham chased a suspected perpetrator into a vacant city lot. The lot was “strewn with debris such as radios, stereos, and hundreds of red-colored crates,” court documents revealed.
Mulham jumped on a structure “fashioned out of, among other things, wood, sticks, fabrics and crates,” believing that the suspect was hiding underneath. Once he landed, Mulham’s leg went through a piece of plywood, and the injuries he sustained to his shoulder and knee forced him to leave the police force after a stint on disability leave.