Philipstown landscaper, speeding deputy collided
Putnam County is poised to approve a $775,000 settlement with a Philipstown landscaper severely injured in a May 2021 crash when a sheriff’s deputy crossed the double yellow lines on Route 301 while speeding to a non-emergency call.
The Legislature’s Audit Committee on Monday (April 29) approved a resolution authorizing the settlement with Marc Manzoeillo, who owns Marc’s Landscaping and Outdoor Living. He suffered a broken shoulder, head and back lacerations, a concussion and left hip and right ankle injuries when he was ejected from his Ford dump truck after the collision with a Dodge Charger driven by Sgt. William Quick.
The full Legislature is expected to vote on Tuesday (May 7) to settle the lawsuit Manzoeillo filed in January 2022 against the county, the Sheriff’s Office and Quick, who was airlifted to Westchester Medical Center after being pinned for an hour by the Charger’s dashboard and steering wheel.
Putnam would pay a $250,000 deductible and insurance would cover the rest.
According to court records, Quick, who later retired on disability, decided to respond after seeing that three deputies were dispatched to investigate a report of a suspicious person on a property at 657 Route 301. After racing down the Taconic to Route 301, Quick reached 75 mph as he sped west on a narrow, two-lane stretch near Canopus Lake, where the speed limit is 40 miles per hour.
The sergeant shifted to the eastbound lane to pass a vehicle just as Manzoeillo approached from the opposite direction. Manzoeillo hit the brakes, sending his truck spinning into the westbound lane, where he and the deputy collided.
In June 2023, a state judge rejected a motion by the county to dismiss the lawsuit, noting that the Charger’s dashcam recorded vehicles trying to get out of Quick’s way and recorded the officer’s “outrageous vulgar tirade” after a driver slowed down and moved to the left to let him pass at the Taconic exit.
The judge cited Quick’s “indifference to the difficulties faced by motorists confronted by the blaring lights and sirens of a rapidly moving police car.”
The collision caused the left side of the dump truck’s cab to dislodge. Quick’s vehicle incurred heavy damage on the left front and side.
Manzoeillo said in a deposition that he was disabled for more than two months. He said he remembered only driving west past Canopus Lake just before the crash and then hearing someone tell him to “lay back down.”
A state police report said Manzoeillo caused the collision by “failing to maintain his lane of travel” when he reacted and spun into the westbound lane. The county argued that Quick should receive immunity under a section of state vehicle and traffic law that gives officers leeway when responding to emergencies.
Grossman acknowledged that Quick’s response represented an “emergency operation” because he believed that there may be a burglary in process, but he allowed the case to proceed because Manzoeillo and his attorneys could possibly prove that Quick acted with reckless disregard.
Under Sheriff’s Office guidelines, deputies should only consider certain calls for an emergency response, including when pursuing or apprehending a violator or suspected violator, when an incident may involve “possible personal injury, death or significant property damage” and when there is a crime in progress.
An internal investigation of the crash found that within a minute of Quick activating his sirens, one of the three deputies dispatched to the scene was told he could “disregard” the call.
The report also found that Quick did not inform anyone that he was responding and he failed to use his work phone to confirm the contents of “broken radio traffic” coming from the Sheriff’s Office’s channel. None of the radio transmissions or onboard computer information “suggested that the activity was a possible burglary in process,’” according to the investigation.
The Sheriff’s Office also reviewed Quick’s actions in May 2020, when he joined state troopers chasing a vehicle on Interstate 84 at about 2 a.m. in the rain. Quick exceeded 100 mph as the fleeing driver smashed into his vehicle and Quick tried to get the driver to spin out.
After that crash, then-Sheriff Robert Langley Jr. and Undersheriff Kevin Cheverko recommended that Quick undergo counseling on pursuit policy and “his ability to use judgment in pursuit driving.”
Normally, I thoroughly support law enforcement, but this officer is completely and 100 percent negligent. Considering his previous absence of any kind of pursuit knowledge, it’s easy to believe the officer was totally at fault. In my opinion, $775,000 is far too little to compensate Mr. Manzoeillo. He should get millions for Putnam’s thoughtless hiring, acceptance of a poorly trained officer’s actions as well as the county’s lack of corrective discipline, thus allowing this officer to again be involved in an irresponsible pursuit action. Putnam had no problem giving this officer full disability and yet they’re cheaping it out on compensation to an individual who wasn’t in the wrong and should have never been involved in this type of accident. Shame on the State Police for saying Manzoeillo caused the accident. The cherry on top is the call was “disregarded.”