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COHEN & MCLAUGHLIN TALK WITH ROSANNA SCOTTO ABOUT CAMPBELL CASE

Earlier this week, Newman Ferrara attorneys, Debra Cohen and Randolph McLaughlin, met with Fox News reporter, Rosanna Scotto , to talk about the Campbell case.

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Standing next to Ms. Scotto (extreme right) is William Campbell, brother of Charles Campbell, who was murdered in Dobbs Ferry in 1996 by off duty NYC police officer Richard DiGuglielmo.

Ms. Debra Cohen and Professor Randolph McLaughlin (pictured left) sued the shooter (and others involved) and recovered a $4.5 million verdict.

More about the Campbell case, follows:

nytimes_nyreblog_com_.gifJury Awards Damages to Relatives of Man Shot by an Officer

By MONTE WILLIAMS
Published: April 21, 2001

A jury awarded the brother and son of a Westchester County man killed by an off-duty New York City police officer $4.5 million in damages yesterday in United States District Court in Manhattan.

The former officer, Richard D. DiGuglielmo, several members of his family and the family's businesses were found liable in the civil case.

Mr. DiGuglielmo, who is serving a sentence of 20 years to life in the 1996 killing, his father and his brother-in-law got into a scuffle with the victim, Charles Campbell, after arguing over a parking space outside a Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., deli owned by Mr. DiGuglielmo's mother, Rosemarie.

Mr. DiGuglielmo testified in court that when he fired three shots from a .32-caliber Colt into Mr. Campbell's upper body outside the deli, he believed he was saving the life of his father, Richard B. DiGuglielmo. Mr. Campbell had struck the elder Mr. DiGuglielmo in the leg with an aluminum bat.

Speaking after court, Ms. DiGuglielmo, the president and principal owner of Mimie Di-Scat Corporation, which owns the land on which the deli and several stores sit in a strip mall in the Hudson River village, said: ''How do you put a number on a father's life? How do we answer that question? My son could answer it if he were here. My son gave up his life to save his father's life.''

Ms. DiGuglielmo, who said she was not sure if she would appeal, noted that she had begun struggling with the family business's insurance companies, which have appeared reluctant to pay the damages related to the incident.

Randolph M. McLaughlin, the lawyer for the dead man's brother, William Campbell, and his son, Vaughn, 17, said he did not think there were grounds for an appeal. He would not discuss how he planned to collect the judgment, which exceeds by $1 million the amount that he had requested.

Mr. Campbell, an insurance broker and financial consultant from Yonkers, said he was pleased with the verdict. ''The system worked well,'' he said.

The jury forewoman, Grace L. Jones, said that jurors had Vaughn's best interest in mind. ''We hope he goes far,'' she said.

A juror who lives in Bedford, N.Y., said he found the testimony of a nurse who witnessed the shooting critical in determining the amount of the award. The nurse, Marianne Wekerle, asked an employee of the Venice Deli to bring towels so that she might assist the shooting victim. Using expletives, the shooter ordered her not to touch Mr. Campbell, and to forget about the towels, she said. The elder Mr. DiGuglielmo, according to Ms. Wekerle, instructed her to leave the scene, adding, ''You didn't see anything.''

The juror said, ''It pretty much undermined the testimony of the DiGuglielmos.''

He added that the jurors' decision on the amount of the award was influenced by testimony that the elder Mr. DiGuglielmo had a history of accosting people who parked in front of the deli. About a half-dozen witnesses testified that the elder Mr. DiGuglielmo had assaulted them in the parking lot.

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