Belleville Settled Police-Related Lawsuit For $90K: Report

BELLEVILLE, NJ — Belleville will pay $90,000 to the family of a man who sued several local police officers and the former chief after officers allegedly used “excessive force” on him during an arrest in 2010, reports say.

Details of the settlement were published last week by Open Public Records Act advocate John Paff on the NJ Civil Settlements blog. (Read the full blog post here)

Paff wrote:

“In his lawsuit, Nicholas H. Quartuccio, Sr. said that he was cooperative when police arrived at his home on September 2, 2010 in response to a call regarding a dispute between Quartuccio, his daughter and her boyfriend. According to the lawsuit, the dispute was over whether the daughter's boyfriend was allowed to stay at the premises. According to Quartuccio, officers kept asking him the same questions and kept responding ‘wrong answer’ when he answered them. He claimed that police, without cause, surrounded him and ‘hit him on the back of the head and slammed him to the ground.’ Thereafter, the officers allegedly ‘kicked, punched and beat [him] outside his home, jumping and pummeling him and hitting him in the head.’”

Paff continued:

“Quartuccio claimed that police falsely charged him with aggravated assault on a police officer, resisting arrest, criminal mischief and throwing bodily fluids at a law enforcement officer. He said that he spent about a week in jail and, on advice of his lawyer, pled guilty to simple assault and a disorderly persons charge.”

Quartuccio died in a house fire in 2015, NJ.com reported.

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