City to pay more than $8M settlement after drunken off-duty cop nearly kills two men
The city is paying out $8 million after ex-Officer Brendan Cronin opened fire on this car while Joseph Felice and Robert Borrelli were in it in 2014.
(Evidence photograph)Two men who claim that a boozed up, off-duty cop shot at them for no reason will receive more than $8 million in settlement money from the city, officials confirmed.
Hockey teammates Joseph Felice and Robert Borrelli were heading home from a game in Pelham in Westchester County in April 2014 when disgraced ex-NYPD Officer Brendan Cronin blasted 14 rounds at their car.
Felice — who was hit six times — nearly died.
Under the settlement, $6.9 million will go to Felice and $1.275 million to Borrelli.
Ex-NYPD cop gets nine years for nearly killing two men
Felice (l.) was hospitalized with six gunshot wounds, and as a result, former Police Officer Brendan Cronin (r.) is serving nine years in prison.
“Settling this case was in the best interests of the city,” a Law Department spokesman said.
Cronin, who pleaded guilty to firing at them in September 2015, was sentenced to nine years in prison in April.
He previously claimed in court papers that stress from arrest quotas made him hit the bottle, the Daily News exclusively reported.
Victim Robert Borelli (r.) speaks as his lawyer Randolph McLaughlin (l.) looks on outside court in White Plains in 2014. Borelli and Felice hope their case will inspire reform in how the NYPD handles alcohol abuse.
(Richard Harbus for New York Daily News)Lawyers for the men, Randolph McLaughlin and Debra Cohen, said they hope the settlement will prompt reform in the NYPD regarding alcohol.
Man shot by drunk cop says NYPD’s booze culture enabled car crash
“Hopefully the city’s settlement demonstrates the beginning of a zero-tolerance policy for alcohol abuse by its police officers, particularly when they are in possession of their service weapons or driving cars,” McLaughlin said.
"The disregard shown by Brendan Cronin and his NYPD supervisors on April 29, 2014, when they shared several rounds of drinks at a City Island bar following a day of training, was not an isolated incident," Cohen said in a statement. "Stopping the epidemic of excessive drinking by on- and off-duty police officers must become a public safety priority for the NYPD."
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