The previous U.S. Marine acquitted final month of legal expenses within the dying of a person on a New York Metropolis subway prepare is in search of to dismiss a lawsuit introduced by the sufferer’s father.
Daniel Penny’s lawyer, in a court docket submitting Monday, stated his shopper denies the lawsuit’s claims that the 26-year-old is culpable for civil damages for utilizing a chokehold on Jordan Neely whereas Neely was shouting and appearing erratically on a crowded prepare on Might 1, 2023.
Andre Zachery, in a swimsuit filed final month earlier than a jury cleared Penny within the legal trial, accused the Lengthy Island native of negligence, assault and battery for putting his 30-year-old son in a chokehold for about six minutes, resulting in his son’s dying.
However Penny’s lawyer Steven Raiser, in his authorized submitting, stated “all injuries or damages” had been attributable to Neely’s “culpable conduct, negligence, carelessness, and lack of care.”
Raiser, in an announcement, stated Penny continues to keep up his innocence and that his acquittal “underscored New Yorkers’ belief in their right to defend themselves and their neighbors from random violence.”
“We are committed to defending this ill-conceived civil action brought by Jordan Neely’s estranged father with same the vigor with which we defended the criminal case,” he added.
Zachery seeks unspecified damages within the swimsuit filed in state Supreme Courtroom.
The case sparked nationwide debate, with some hailing Penny as a hero who subdued a threatening man whereas others noticed him as a white vigilante who choked a Black man to dying.
A Manhattan jury cleared Penny of criminally negligent murder. A extra severe manslaughter cost was dismissed when the jury deadlocked on that rely.
Penny, who served 4 years within the Marines earlier than happening to check structure, did not testify in his personal protection. However he stated in an interview after the decision that he put himself in a “very vulnerable position” within the encounter with Neely but nonetheless felt compelled to behave.
