When the Rye City Council voted last month to settle the longstanding lawsuit brought by Andrew Caspi charging police brutality, they agreed to pay $475,000 on top of legal defense fees already spent.
Legal Fees Still Coming in on Caspi Settlement
When the Rye City Council voted last month to settle the longstanding lawsuit brought by Andrew Caspi charging police brutality, they agreed to pay $475,000 on top of legal defense fees already spent. A Freedom of Information request by The Rye Record shows the City disbursed $468,759.17 in such fees to five law firms through March of 2014. Joseph A. Maria, lead counsel for the City and the Police Department, received $176,590.96 and Anthony Piscionere, counsel for Police Officer Anthony Rosace, received $133,632. Firms representing the other officers involved were paid over $150,000 altogether.
These totals do not represent fees incurred from the time the lawsuit was initiated in 2006 to June of 2008, nor do they cover the period between March 21, 2014 and the present. When all is said and done, the City faced legal obligations of more than $1 million when it settled March 11.
— Mitch Silver
Ex-Golf Club Manager’s Sentencing Put Off, Pending Possible Restitution
Scott Yandrasevich, the former manager of Rye Golf Club, whose theft of $271,120 – some say millions – threw the Club into financial turmoil, appeared for sentencing April 9 before Judge Barry Warhit at Criminal Court in White Plains. In November, the defendant pled guilty to one count of Third Degree Grand Larceny, a Class D felony, and two counts of Falsifying Business Records.
Kerry Lawrence, Yanadrasevich’s attorney, conferred with the District Attorney’s Public Integrity Bureau chief Brian Conway before proceedings began, and then both approached Judge Warhit for a sidebar.
It took just a few minutes for Warhit to adjourn sentencing until July 30, pending Yandrasevich’s attempt to pay restitution, on which his sentence depends. If he pays full restitution prior to sentencing, he will serve a one- year term in County jail. Otherwise, he could serve one to three years in state prison and still have to pay full restitution.
According to the DA’s spokesperson, Lucien Chalfen, there was no amendment to the sentencing deal; the defendant was simply granted more time to secure funds to make restitution. Lawrence did not return a call seeking comment.
In March, the City of Rye engaged the law firm Jaffe & Asher to assist the City in its $2.1 million claim with Travelers Casualty and Surety Company, based on fraudulent billing at the golf club.
— Tom McDermottÂÂÂ
