NIAGARA FALLS —
An attempt to resolve a federal lawsuit against the City of Niagara Falls, several current and former City Council members and a police officer has failed.
The attorney for Matteo Anello, the brother of former Falls Mayor Vince Anello, has confirmed that a federal mediator was unable to broker a settlement in suit seeking damages from Anello’s arrest during a City Council meeting on Oct. 22, 2007.
“We had a meeting with the mediator and we couldn’t get anywhere, “ Anello’s attorney Matthew Pynn said. “We’ll now move forward with (U.S.) Magistrate (Leslie) Foschio.”
Foschio had directed that the suit be referred to mediation. Under federal court rules, some civil lawsuits must be subjected to mediation, and that mediation has to fail, before the case can go to trial.
Chief U.S. District Court Judge William Skretny appointed Joseph V. McCarthy, a partner in the firm of Roach, Brown, McCarthy and Gruber, to act as the mediator in the case. McCarthy specializes in personal injury defense, including medical malpractice.
However, Pynn says mediation sessions with lawyers for the city failed to yield any results. Foschio has now scheduled a status conference on the case for late June and the matter may now head to trial.
Anello is seeking unspecified damages for what he claims were his false arrest and imprisonment and malicious prosecution after an incident at the City Council meeting. His lawsuit names the city, current Councilmen Robert Anderson Jr., Samuel Fruscione and Charles Walker, former Councilmen Chris Robins and Lewis “Babe” Rotella and a Cataract City cop as defendants.
The former mayor’s brother claims they all bear responsibility for violating his constitutional and civil rights.
Anello claims he was “falsely arrested and falsely imprisoned” after Anderson ordered him removed from the City Council Chambers. He was speaking during a portion of the Council meeting designated for public comments.
The lawsuit claims a police officer, who was stationed at the Council meeting to keep order, then used excessive force to remove Anello from the Council chambers after being ordered to do so by Anderson.
City lawyers have called the lawsuit “frivolous.”
They also claim that Anello failed to file his suit within time limits required by law and that any injuries he suffered while being arrested, were his own fault.
“If (Anello) was injured ... then such injures were brought about, in whole or in part, by unlawful and careless activities of (Anello) without any culpable conduct on the part of the defendants,” Assistant Corporation Counsel Tom O’Donnell wrote in a court filing. “This claim (by Anello) is frivolous and without any merits whatsoever.”
After multiple postponements of court hearings, lasting over a year and a half, City Court Judge Diane Vitello gave Anello an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal on the charges he faced. Those charges were formally dismissed on Nov. 30.
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Matteo’s mediation fails
Federal lawsuit by brother of former mayor is moving forward
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