Here's a cautionary tale for anyone who has ever let their dog run free in a city park at 4:45 p.m. and hoped no one in a uniform would notice. Someone noticed, and six years later a federal jury has had the final word.
A Manhattan jury on Wednesday ruled against yoga instructor Sabrina Toner. She had sued two NYC Parks Enforcement Patrol officers, saying they used excessive force when they arrested her in Battery Park in November 2020. The trial was over an unleashed 10-pound Italian greyhound mix named Einstein. Jurors deliberated for about three hours and decided the force wasn't excessive, as Gothamist reports.
Wait, Who Are the Guys in Green?
Some quick background for anyone who doesn't live with New York's park rules. Parks Enforcement Patrol officers are not NYPD. They're NYC Parks' own uniformed force, recognizable by their all-green outfits.
According to the city, they're state-certified peace officers who can write tickets and make arrests. That distinction became a big part of this case. Toner testified that she had no idea who the two men in green were when they approached her during the early, isolating months of the pandemic.
Two Very Different Stories
What happened next depends on who you ask.
Toner said the officers pushed her, took her to the ground, and put a knee on her neck. She said she came away with facial cuts, bruises, and months of recovery.
The officers said they just wanted the dog leashed, that she got combative and resisted, and that nobody put a knee anywhere near her neck.
And Then There Was the Tape
One of the officers recorded the encounter on a city-issued audio recorder, and per Gothamist, Toner can be heard swearing at them on it. To her credit, she owned that on the stand, admitting she'd been rude and saying it came from fear.
But in an excessive-force case, the legal question is whether the officers' force was reasonable given what they were dealing with. A recording of the plaintiff cursing out the cops was probably not going to help her there.
The city's lawyer called the whole suit "frivolous" and argued that getting hurt during an arrest doesn't automatically mean the arrest was illegal. The jury apparently agreed.
How the Case Got Here
The case, Toner v. City of New York, was filed in 2022 and trimmed down along the way. By early this year, after some claims were voluntarily dropped, just three were left: federal excessive force, federal failure to intervene, and a state assault-and-battery claim.
The city tried to knock out the failure-to-intervene claim before trial. It argued that Toner couldn't accuse both officers of using force and of standing by while the other one did. In February, Judge Jesse Furman rejected that argument, ruling that she could pursue both theories and that a jury should decide whether either officer had a chance to step in. He also nudged both sides to try settling rather than go to trial, even offering a settlement conference with a magistrate judge.
Evidently that didn't pan out, because the case went to trial this week.
As for the original offense, Toner pleaded guilty years ago to a violation for the unleashed dog. The disorderly conduct and failure-to-comply charges were dropped.
The Good Boy Is Fine, Though
Einstein, for the record, bolted during the arrest and was found later. Of everyone involved, he appears to have come through it best.
Toner could still seek a new trial or file an appeal, and we'll update if she does. Meanwhile, the lesson for dog owners everywhere seems to be: bring the leash, and use it.
