A Brooklyn federal judge shaved $ 1.5 million off a massive jury award to a former West Point translator who got slugged in the face by an NYPD officer in a 2010 case of mistaken identity, The Post has learned.
John Gad Alla, 35, scored $ 2.5 million in February after a jury found that he was wrongly assaulted and arrested after a violent melee at his home.
But Judge Frederic Block vacated $ 1.5 million from that overall amount and ordered a fresh trial to determine a new total, court papers show.
The tossed award represented economic damages done to Alla related to excessive force from the officers — but Block ruled that the amount was excessive.
Block rejected Alla’s claim that he could never properly work again and that he should be compensated for a lifetime of lost wages.
“No medical expert opined that Alla would not be able to work again,” Block wrote in a decision handed down Wednesday. “The speculative nature of Gad Alla’s residual earning capacity is sufficient, standing alone, to require a new trial.”
Alla, who had once hoped to serve in Iraq as a military translator, was living with two roommates in 2010 when the pair began brawling inside their apartment while he was in another room, according to court papers.
One of the men began waving a knife and eventually battered his combatant bloody. The injured roommate ran out of the house and told arriving cops that his assailant — an Egyptian man in a white T-shirt — was still inside.
Officers encountered Alla and assumed that he was the knife-wielding maniac before subduing him, court papers state. Officer Brian Verkay eventually socked Alla as he was being handcuffed — but later realized that he had nailed the wrong man, according to court papers.
Alla was later arrested for resisting officers but the charges were never pursued, court papers state.
At trial, Alla said that the fearsome punch drained his life of nearly all its joy. “My major problem in life now is actually the focusing problem, like, lack of concentration,” he told jurors. “You know, thinking about my future, you know, marriage, whatever I had before, it just adds to my list, I don’t really think about that anymore.”
Educated as an Egyptologist in his native country, Alla said that his formerly solid job prospects have dissolved. He claimed that he applied for several translating jobs but found the tests too difficult.
“What I’m thinking now is just go somewhere with either my brother or my sister and just live with them,” he told jurors.
While he will get to keep at least $ 1 million, Alla will now head to court once again to pursue the remainder.
His lawyer did not immediately return a call for comment.
Yahoo Local News – New York Post
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