Lumer Law Group

11/03/2025

The great Bryan Stevenson describing the casual racism that still permeates our social and political institutions.

08/04/2023

Happy to announce that we took a million-dollar verdict yesterday in federal court in Brooklyn for MH, a man who was wrongly prosecuted for a robbery he did not commit and who was jailed for 11 months as a result. Justice was a long time coming for MH but we are glad we could help deliver his vindication, along with our co-counsel, Lauriano and Christine Guzman, who fought to get this case to trial.

08/01/2023

Terrific lawyering! A shame it was necessary.

NLG members affiliated with NLG-NYC secured a historic settlement for protesters brutalized by NYPD in 2020. The $13 million settlement is the largest amount paid to protesters in a class action in U.S. history.

https://www.blhny.com/single-post/protesters-win-record-13-million-plus-settlement-over-nypd-misconduct-during-blm-2020-protests

02/03/2023

To be clear, $121m is a lot of money for a lot of misconduct. On a related note, Michael Lumer is interviewed in the accompanying video.

NEW YORK (PIX11) — New York City shelled out more than $121 million to settle NYPD misconduct cases last year, including $12 million for a man who spent more than two decades in prison for a …

01/16/2023

Lawyers are often (correctly) portrayed as uninterested in the greater good. But the law can be a powerful tool for justice. As MLK said in a speech before the NYC Bar Association in 1965, "As we have fought and demanded our just rights, as we have given witness with our bodies to the existence of evil, lawyers have steadfastly used their professional talents, knowledge and abilities to aid us, to make our plea for dignity heard in the courts of our land." It is true that, "justice at times proceeds with a halting gait, that at times the law has been slow to speak for the poor, the oppressed, the unpopular, the disfranchised," but as lawyers, we have the ability to work, however incrementally, towards a more just society. It is on days like today that I am reminded of my larger obligations. We often fall short, but it is essential that we continue to strive to do what we know is right.

01/04/2023

We are happy that our client, JT, was able to reach a prompt and fair resolution. But the fact that the City of New York is paying the entire settlement (even though one offending officer is being charged departmentally with using excessive force, including a chokehold, and for making a false statement), confirms that the NYPD is just fine with this sort of conduct.

Police claimed that Joseph T. assaulted them in the May 2020 incident, but body camera footage published by THE CITY showed otherwise.

08/26/2022

We are happy to announce that a jury has found defendants Undercover Officer 217, Ylka Morales, and Hugo Ortega violated our client's rights and caused him significant injuries. The story doesn't fully capture how venal the UC officer's conduct was. He repeatedly swore under oath that he saw our client in a drug transaction when he knew he never saw any such thing, and he completely made up a claim that our client and several others tried to rob him at gunpoint. If exculpatory surveillance video hadn't surfaced our client would undoubtedly have been convicted and sentenced to years in prison. Truly shameful conduct.

Former Detective Ylka Morales, detective Hugo Ortega, an unnamed undercover officer, were hit with the tab as part of a Tuesday verdict in favor of William Kleinfeldt, who sued the trio in Brooklyn federal court for excessive force and malicious prosecution.

02/20/2022

So this case of ours made the Daily News today. While funny enough to qualify as click bait, the article ignores that the detective's colleague tried to frame our client for an attempted armed robbery that never happened. Had my co-counsel not located video fully exonerating our client, our client would almost certainly have gone upstate for several years. You have to wonder how many other people this lying undercover officer locked up on completely manufactured claims.

“I was drugged/poisoned and framed by NYPD Narcotics Detective Ali Dee because I ousted her for being corrupt,” Morales wrote on June 3, 2019. “Don’t think I don’t know you’ve been using Santeria Spells to do bad things to people at work.

09/26/2021

A small but powerful moment that still resonates.

Learn more about our history of racial injustice

09/17/2020

Not at all surprising to see confirmation that pervasive and police misconduct are at the root of most wrongful convictions. Aggressive criminal defense and civil rights litigation remains essential to keeping the government honest.

Many factors contribute to wrongful convictions of people, including withholding evidence or false identifications, but science and innocence advocates are making progress, the study says.

07/30/2020

PO Joseph Recca of the NYPD arrested for his part in a conspiracy to distribute narcotics. Prosecution proceeding in Suffolk County. Has already rolled over on his co-defendants. It is not yet clear where Recca was assigned, but safe to say, he won't be back.

The officer, who was not immediately identified, and the two other defendants in the alleged narcotics ring were slated to be arraigned via video conference later Wednesday, Suffolk County law enforcement officials said.

06/23/2020

Michael Lumer was quoted in today's Daily News article about PO David Afanador, who was caught using a prohibited chokehold against Ricky Bellevue. Michael sued Afanador and two other officers for breaking a client's clavicle in 2011. In 2014, Afanador deliberately hit our teenage client in the mouth with his handgun, for which he was arrested and prosecuted. Eventually he and the City settled that case as well. That he was still on the street tells you all you need to know about the NYPD's benevolent view towards thuggish cops.

Ricky Bellevue was arrested by Officer David Afanador and other cops at 8:45 a.m. Sunday near Beach 113th St and Ocean Promenade in Rockaway Beach.