Judge: Vineland police brutality case can continue

VINELAND - The city is off the hook in a roughly four-year and counting civil-rights lawsuit stemming from a neighborly dispute that later involved allegations of police brutality, retaliation and conspiracy against a local couple.

In an opinion filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Camden, federal judge Robert B. Kugler both granted and denied motions for summary judgment on both sides of the suit involving five Vineland police officers, the department’s chief Timothy Codispoti, the city and two local couples who live next to each other on Yelkca Avenue.

The city, Sgt. Jeffrey Riggion and Codispoti were all dismissed as defendants in the case.

The case stems from a 2010 incident in which two next-door neighbors — one a city detective — got into a heated dispute that later attracted the attention of police officers accused of going too far in their arrest of John Panarello.

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Panarello, the plaintiff in the case along with his wife, sued their neighbors, Vineland Police Detective Antonio "Pete” Ramos and wife Jeanne Ramos, as well as the other defendants in 2012.

The story starts in the fall of 2009 when Panarello and Ramos, in Kugler’s words, became engaged "in a series of petty and borderline ridiculous disputes."

"They bickered over pets, the installation of a privacy fence, noise, and each accused the other of engaging in obnoxious activity," Kugler wrote in his opinion. "It seems that Pete and John both had (a) knack for getting under the skin of the other."

A confrontation between the two erupted on July 7, 2010, over property lines, which became the episode that sparked the civil suit, criminal charges, a trial and more.

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Panarello had been using a weed-whacker to trim vegetation along the property line that day while Ramos was outside cleaning his swimming pool, the suit states.

Ramos accused Panarello of knocking debris into his pool, and then shot a "stream of water" over the fence toward his neighbor, according to the suit.

The two, separated by a fence, then exchanged words and cursed at each other, the suit states.

At that point, Panarello is said to have grabbed a wooden board and smacked it on top of the fence.

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From the other side, Ramos grabbed an end of it and the two struggled for control over the board, the suit states.

But Panarello was said to regain control and pull it back over to his side.

Meanwhile, Ramos' wife had witnessed the confrontation and called the police, telling a sergeant that Panarello had attempted to strike her husband with the wooden board.

Officers Matthew Laielli, Adam Shaw and Brian Armstrong responded to the scene and got statements from the Ramoses.

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But while attempting to talk to Panarello in his backyard for his side of the story, officers stated he turned and evaded police, according to statements.

The officers said they felt Panarello may have been attempting to obtain a weapon from his house, and was committing the crime of obstruction, so the officers headed into the backyard to detain and arrest him.

Panarello was subsequently tackled in his house and placed under arrest, according to statements, and that's where the parties begin to disagree on the facts.

Kugler notes that no events, including all accusations by both parties, are disputed up until the moment police officers enter Panarello’s home.

"The parties disagree entirely as to what happened within the house beyond the fact that Panarello was arrested and was struck by officers Laielli and Shaw," Kugler noted.

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The arresting officers said Panarello was fighting police at the time of his arrest, and they struck him because he had been resisting arrest.

But the Panarellos said the officers "purposely struck (Panarello) while he was restrained in order to beat him.”

The Panarellos claimed "Vineland police entered (the house) without an arrest warrant and assaulted him by tackling him to the floor, and while one officer held him down, the other officer repeatedly punched (Panarello) in and about his face and head, bruising his head, blackening his eyes and fracturing his nose in the presence of Sherie Panarello, his wife, and their 2-year-old daughter."

The couple accused Armstrong, who was tasked after the arrest with transporting Panarello to the station, of placing him in an unrestrained cruiser that "stopped and accelerated abruptly" to cause Panarello additional injuries.

Finally at the station, statements indicate an incident transpired which prompted Day and Armstrong to use pepper spray to restrain Panarello.

While attempting to help, a female EMS worker was apparently spit on by Panarello, it was stated.

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When the episode was all said and done, Panarello had multiple charges filed against him, including two counts of assault on a police officer, assault on an EMS worker, aggravated assault, resisting arrest, obstruction and two weapons possession counts.

A trial followed in 2013 and Panarello was convicted of assault on the EMS worker and resisting arrest.

He appealed his conviction for resisting arrest but a Superior Court judge affirmed it in 2014.

The Panarellos filed their civil-rights suit in 2012 with an amended complaint two years later, which removed Cumberland County as a co-plaintiff.

Panarello claimed he had suffered permanent injuries as a result of his alleged beating.

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On Monday, the court dismissed counts against the city and some against officer defendants, which included various constitutional violations, conspiracy, malicious prosecution and more.

Panarello's wife had sued claiming loss of consortium — or loss of her spouse's companionship and services due to the fault of another.

Those claims were dismissed in summary judgment due to lack of evidence.

Claims against the city included having a policy of failing to preserve video evidence of the incident, making unconstitutional and warrantless arrest and entries, as well as failing to properly train officers and maintaining ordinances that mandated arrests.

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The court dismissed those claims as Panarello was found to provide insufficient evidence.

Likewise, the conspiracy claims were dismissed on the grounds that the plaintiffs failed to present evidence, which they conceded, Kugler noted.

"Plaintiffs have failed to put forth any evidence, and the evidence submitted by the municipal defendants and adopted by the officer defendants defeats any claim of a conspiracy made by plaintiffs,” Kugler wrote.

When it came to unlawful Fourth Amendment search and seizure claims made by Panarello, Kugler granted the officers' motion for summary judgment only with respect to entry into the driveway, but not Panarello's home.

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"Because Panarello's arrest need not be lawful under the resisting arrest statute, it does not matter whether the police were lawfully on his property in the process of effecting the arrest," the judge wrote. “Thus, any finding of unlawful entry would not invalidate his conviction for resisting arrest."

Claims of warrantless entry and arrest, as well as two incidents of excessive force and retaliation, remain against officers Laielli, Shaw, Day and Armstrong.

Claims of assault and battery also remain against Ramos, as well as common law conspiracy against him and his wife.

The City of Vineland and Codispoti were represented by Michael E. Benson of Buonadonna & Benson; Armstrong, Shaw, Day and Laielli are represented by Justin Robert White of the firm Testa, Heck, Scrocca Testa, PA.; the Ramoses are represented by Carlos Andujar Jr., of the Law Office of Carlos Andujar Jr.

Daniel J. Kov; (856) 563-5262; dkov@gannettnj.com