Lawsuit by former FDNY firefighter hit with chair goes to trial
Excerpts from Staten Island Advance article by Frank Donnelly:
Nearly five years after being brutally beaten with a metal chair by a comrade in a Tottenville firehouse on New Year’s Eve, a former firefighter will find out if his injuries are worth the $100 million he seeks.
Robert Walsh, 45, alleges he suffered “permanent injuries,” including facial and skull fractures and memory loss at Michael Silvestri’s hands in Engine Co. 151/Ladder Co. 76 firehouse on Amboy Road on Dec. 31, 2003. Several firefighters, including Walsh, had been drinking.
Fire personnel then tried to cover up the incident by telling doctors at Staten Island University Hospital, Ocean Breeze, that Walsh had fallen down the firehouse stairs. Silvestri was sentenced to a year in jail in April 2006 after pleading guilty in state Supreme Court, St. George, to second-degree assault.
The trial is set to begin Nov. 17. It will determine damages and the percentage for which each party is liable.
In March, District Judge Robert W. Sweet, found the city negligent in failing to properly supervise Silvestri.
Sweet held the city liable because former Capt. Terrence Sweeney was in the firehouse kitchen yet did not intervene when an argument between Silvestri and Walsh grew heated and culminated in the attack. At one point, Silvestri, 46, threatened to hit Walsh with a chair and did so moments later when the larger man taunted him.
A probe by the city Department of Investigation found that Sweeney, Walsh and several other firefighters had been drinking beer, while Silvestri, who had just come on duty at 6 p.m. was mixing sangria. There was no evidence Silvestri had been drinking. Sweeney had just gotten off duty.
