Enfield Town Council Settles Final Lawsuit for $140,000

ENFIELD, CT — The final lawsuit of nearly a dozen brought against the town of Enfield and/or members of its police department was settled Monday night by a resolution of the town council.

The resolution authorizes the town's insurer, the Connecticut Interlocal Risk Management Agency (CIRMA), to settle a civil lawsuit brought by Amie Olschafskie, mother of the late Tyler Damato, for $140,000.

According to the lawsuit, Damato was involved in an automobile accident on Oct. 24, 2012, and sustained a traumatic brain injury. As a result, he suffered "a significant diminution of his motor and cognitive skills, was forced to walk with a cane and experienced depression."

The suit alleges Damato, 20, began expressing suicidal thoughts on Christmas Day that year, and his grandmother went to the Enfield Police Department to ask for help bringing him to a hospital for observation.

As Damato was walking toward a waiting ambulance, he dropped his cane, and while retrieving it, he was violently forced to the ground by officer Matthew Worden and another officer. The officers allegedly smashed his head into the asphalt, struck him twice with a taser and kneeled on his head, according to the lawsuit.

Less than two months after the incident, Damato was operating a car in the Holy Family Church parking lot on Simon Road when the vehicle left the paved portion of the lot and struck a tree, a police report said.

Damato was taken off life support and died three days after the crash.

The settlement amount of $140,000 was included in the resolution approved by the council, and stated out loud by Mayor Michael Ludwick. The previous nine settlements had all been on condition of nondisclosure of the amount.

Town Attorney Chris Bromson said the amount of the Olschafskie settlement was disclosed publicly due to it being the final case to be resolved.

"On advice of legal counsel, the town council had made all previous settlements confidential," he said during the meeting. "They believed it would be much more difficult to settle and/or try cases if the amounts were in the public realm. Many of these cases were a business decision made by CIRMA, although some council members had difficulty doing that."

Bromson said a letter from the insurance carrier received Dec. 13 basically forced the council to settle the Olschafskie suit, rather than proceeding to a trial which had been scheduled for next month.

"The letter basically says if we do not settle this case for $140,000, [CIRMA] would withdraw the attorneys they hired for the town," Bromson said. "We would have to retain new attorneys at the town's expense, and if the case after trial exceeded the $140,000 they were willing to pay, the town would be responsible for any amount over that, together with all attorney's fees including the plaintiff's."

Each settlement cost the town a $25,000 deductible, with the balance paid by the insurance company, according to Bromson.

Bromson said he has requested the exact settlement amount from all cases, and upon receipt, will release them to the media and the American Civil Liberties Union pursuant to Freedom of Information Act requests.

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