City defends against wrongful death suit



Hour Staff Writer

The city and members of the police department settled lawsuits stemming from the death of a Norwalk man who crashed his motorcycle into a utility pole on Oct. 7, 2002. The teen had apparently struck a car while being observed by a Sgt. Marc Lepore, a Norwalk officer on patrol.

The family has maintained that their son died because he was being recklessly pursued by police following the hit-and-run, but they lost their wrongful death suit in court Friday.

Now, the tide of litigation has turned back on the family, with the officers involved getting damages for having their reputations smeared and the city seeking damages of its own for having to fend off what Police Chief Harry Rilling called a "frivolous lawsuit."

Vincenzo Iannone Jr. died after driving his motorcycle into the utility pole at the intersection of Strawberry Hill Avenue and Norden Place. Responding officers found his body 50 feet away from the shattered debris of the motorcycle. The impact of the crash was so bad that the pole was vertically cracked and pushed back about one inch from where it had been mounted in the ground, according to court documents.

Vincenzo Iannone Sr., who hired a private investigator to look into his son's death, was allegedly uncooperative with police and solicited at least two other attorneys before finding one to take on his suit, court documents show.

"People generally try to sue the city and the police department because of the deep-pockets theory, and this is one example of why they need to understand that you cannot bring a suit without just cause," Rilling said.

Now in a complaint against Iannone, the city alleges that Iannone knew the facts of his son's death and knew that the police were not at fault while proceeding with his lawsuit. The complaint also states that his son had been cited on numerous occasions for reckless driving and speeding, and that Iannone knew or should have known of his son's propensity for reckless driving. At the time of his death, Iannone Jr. was operating under a suspended license.

The city also claims that Iannone Sr. hired a "witness" to support his claims against LePore and the department.

According to court documents, the city claims Iannone Sr. instructed the private investigator to interview Daniel Lasprogato a year after the incident. Iannone Sr. claimed that Lasprogato had witnessed Lepore following his son. The investigator found that Lasprogato provided testimony that did not conform to police conclusions about the accident, but the city claims that Iannone Sr. bribed Lasprogato into altering his statements and then conspired with him and an attorney to concealed Lasprogato's statements from police during their investigation.

Lasprogato admitted that some of the statements supplied by him were false during the discovery process of the wrongful death suit. Lasprogato told investigators Iannone Sr. had contacted him the day after the crash, but Iannone Sr. testified under oath that he had not contacted Lasprogato.

A call to the city's attorney Jeffrey Spahr was not returned Friday.

Also, the police sergeant accused by Iannone Sr. of pursuing his son before the crash and causing his death has been battling the Iannones with a suit of his own alleging vexatious litigation.

In affidavits pertaining to the accident, Lepore claimed he did not engage the teen in a high-speed chase and did not witness the fatal crash. Lepore stated he did not speed after the teen and did not even intend to make a motor vehicle stop until the teen struck a car in front of him, at which point he simply wanted to check the plates. The teen accelerated, turned onto a nearby street, where he struck the utility pole. Lepore did not testify as to his rate of speed during the incident but he had called Patrol Officer Melissa Evans, (now Detective Melissa Lepore), on his cell phone while driving behind the teen and could not have done so had he been engaged in a high speed chase.

According to court documents, Lepore had observed smoke rising from the scene of the accident and called Evans to report the accident once he located the riderless motorcycle. The city claims that neither Lepore nor Evans were actually pursuing the motorcycle when Iannone Jr. crashed.

Lepore and Evans, who are now husband and wife, and who both responded to the accident, claimed that Lepore has suffered in his reputation as a police officer and that both he and she were unable to fully enjoy life's activities after having been named as responsible parties in the teen's death. At one point they were seeking $75,000 in damages from the Iannones, court records show.

In a summary judgment rendered May 21, 2007, in the wrongful death suit, Michael Hillisan, an attorney for the Iannones, called the claims against Melissa Evans Lepore "the most strained" he had ever made in his entire career. According to the police department and the city's documentation, Melissa was "nowhere in sight, not remotely involved, and completely removed from the events."

According to Rilling, the Lepores had reached a settlement in their vexatious litigation suit, but no details were available as to the amount Friday. When approached outside of Stamford Superior Court, Hillisan, declined to give comment due to a confidentiality agreement.