News

By Jane Musgrave

Former Ocean Ridge Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella lost his legal battle against two town police officers over his 2016 arrest at his former oceanfront home on Beachway North.

A federal jury in Miami on Aug. 22 rejected Lucibella’s claims that officers Richard Ermeri and Nubia Plesnik violated his constitutional rights when they arrested him while investigating reports of gunshots.

Jurors listened to nearly a week of testimony and found that neither officer used excessive force nor violated the 71-year-old health care entrepreneur’s freedom from an unwarranted search.

Attorney James Green, who represented Lucibella, said he and his client respect the jury verdict.

“I’m sad and disappointed for Rich,” Green said. “He went through what no citizen should have to go through.”

Lucibella’s face was held against the floor of his patio and three ribs were broken when officers did a knee drop on his back, Green said in court papers.

Orlando attorney Jeff Ashton, who was hired by the town’s insurer to represent the officers, said the jury recognized that Lucibella was responsible for his own fate. “He resisted,” Ashton said. “He got hurt because he resisted. The officers didn’t want to hurt him.”

The trial was only to decide if the officers violated Lucibella’s rights. If the jury found that they had, another trial would have determined damages.

At one time, Lucibella said he would seek $9.4 million, claiming he was suspended from his leadership role at one of his businesses and couldn’t effectively manage others while defending himself against the criminal charges.

Lucibella could appeal the verdict. Green said no decision has been made.

The officers and the town could also ask that Lucibella pay for some of the costs of the lengthy litigation. The town, which in 2021 was dismissed from the lawsuit by a judge, sought nearly $135,000 in attorney fees and court costs.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was then handling the case, said the town could renew the request after the case against the officers was decided. The case was later transferred to U.S. District Judge David Leibowitz.

Green said he doubted Lucibella would have to dig into his wallet. The town and the officers would have to prove that the lawsuit was completely frivolous, he said.

Ashton said it is likely he would ask that Lucibella be ordered to pay the court costs the insurer incurred fighting his claims against the officers. He said he didn’t know how much that would be.

Absent an appeal, the jury verdict would mark the end of a saga that spawned several civil lawsuits, along with the criminal charges against Lucibella, who now lives in Jupiter.

Lucibella, who was elected to the Town Commission in 2014, was cleared of two felony charges of battery on a law enforcement officer in 2019. But the same jury found him guilty of a misdemeanor charge of battery. He was ordered to pay $675 in court costs. He lost his appeal.

Plesnik, meanwhile, reached a confidential out-of-court settlement with Lucibella to end the lawsuit she filed against him for shoulder injuries she claimed she sustained during the scuffle.

In her suit, she claimed Lucibella tried to conceal a .40-caliber pistol by sitting on it when she and Ermeri arrived at the house to investigate the reports of gunfire. The officers also saw several shell casings on the deck, she said.

Knowing he had other guns in the house, she said the officers told him to stay on the patio. Ignoring their warnings, he attacked the officers, pushing Plesnik and grabbing Ermeri around the neck, she claimed in the suit.

Green said Lucibella’s error was failing to give officers information they wanted. “Rich refused to snitch on his friend who actually fired the shots,” he said.