Raoul Lopez Bio, Wiki

Raoul Lopez is a 40-year-old man who has awarded $11 million by a jury in the Bronx after suffering partial paralysis after he was shot by police during a 2006 traffic stop. The unanimous verdict to award Raoul Lopez the massive sum was decided in one hour on October 30th after a seven day trial in Bronx Supreme Court.

Raoul Lopez was Shot after dragging a Cop with his Car

Lopez, who was 27 when the encounter happened, was in the midst of “a two-week-long bender” and had just scored his latest fix on February 1, 2006, when he rolled through a stop sign at East 169th Street and Grand Concourse.

Sgt. Philippe Blanchard and Officer Zinos Konstantinides pulled Lopez’s Honda to a stop shortly before noon and ordered him to stop the engine, but he refused to comply, according to the filings.

Instead, when Konstantinides reached inside the car to make a grab at the keys, Lopez hit the gas, dragging the cop into traffic along bustling Grand Concourse, the documents said.

Lopez claimed he was ordered, at gunpoint to hand over a bag of drugs. He fumbled the bag and dropped it and when he went to pick it up, Blanchard shot him in the back of the neck.

The bullet struck his spinal cord but did not sever it. The impact of the bullet initially left him a quadriplegic. Lopez was taken to Lincoln Hospital with a litany of injuries detailed across two-and-a-half typed pages in his own lawyer’s filing, including partial paralysis to the right side of his body.

Raoul Lopez Has Been Awarded $ 11 Million by the Jury 

Lopez has been awarded $11 million by a jury in the Bronx after suffering partial paralysis after he was shot by police during a 2006 traffic stop. The unanimous verdict to award Raoul Lopez the massive sum was decided in one hour on October 30th after a seven day trial in Bronx Supreme Court. This means that Lopez ultimately won an acquittal on a criminal assault charge, while Blanchard’s potentially life-saving action was deemed “not within department guidelines” in an internal NYPD review.

According to police sources Lopez has 19-lifetime arrests and, by his own admission in court.

His attorney, Brett Klein, even requested the jury $6 to $9 million for lost earnings — despite Lopez not being employed at the time of the incident, according to the documents.

“Raoul Lopez was an unarmed motorist who was needlessly shot in the back of his neck during what the police described as a routine traffic stop,” his lawyer Brett Klein said. “He was at first a quadriplegic, and through hard work, he has made great progress. But the loss of the function of his right arm and other permanent effects of this shooting will be with him for the rest of his life. We are grateful that a Bronx jury has held the City accountable for this wrongful shooting.”

NYPD Statement

Konstantinides, who has since retired from the NYPD, has not commented on the ruling, while Blanchard, still on the job in The Bronx, referred questions to the department’s press office through a fellow cop.

The NYPD deferred comment to the city Law Department, which said that the case may not be over just yet.

“The split-second response by an officer likely stopped this driver from dragging an officer to his death, a response we believe was justified under the circumstances,” said spokesman Nicholas Paolucci in a statement. “We strongly disagree with this verdict and are reviewing the city’s legal options.”