From
The New Jersey Herald:
Hamburg Arrests Spur Legal Claim by Jeff Sistrunk
jsistrunk@njherald.com
HAMBURG -- The former owners of the Gingerbread Castle, who were arrested earlier this month following an incident at the Hamburg Borough Municipal Court, are pursuing a claim against the Hamburg Police Department alleging the arresting officers used excessive force and caused them serious injuries.
Sparta-based attorney Jeffrey Patti said he mailed the tort claim to Hamburg Borough on Tuesday, seeking more than $1 million on the behalf of Francis J. Hinger Jr., 49, and Lorraine Hinger, 40, who were arrested by Hamburg police inside the municipal courthouse Aug. 2. Both were charged with defiant trespassing and obstruction of government function, and Francis Hinger was additionally charged with resisting arrest. The pair was released from custody pending a future court date.
The Hingers owned Hamburg's iconic Gingerbread Castle, a sprawling fairytale-themed amusement park, until 2007, when it was sold for $680,000 at a sheriff's auction to local developers Gene Mulvihill and Pat Barton.
The tort claim said the officers who arrested the Hingers, Sgt. Erik Aronson and Sgt. David McNulty, caused "extreme pain, humiliation and emotional trauma" to the couple, including Lorraine Hinger re-injuring an existing back injury. Both Hingers sustained "severe and permanent injuries" because of the officers' conduct, according to the claim.
"The arresting officers' actions were completely out of line and excessive," Patti said.
Attempts to reach Aronson and Hamburg Police Chief Jan Wright Tuesday were unsuccessful.
According to police, the Hingers were at the borough's municipal court for a hearing before Judge John E. Mulhern on the night of Aug. 2 and became "upset" by the disposition of a case. From there, the accounts of the incident vary wildly between the police report and the tort claim.
Police said the Hingers tried to "antagonize" the two opposing litigants in the case outside the courtroom, while the claim said the couple was mocked and harassed by the other litigants and that Francis Hinger attempted to defend his wife. The police account went on to say that officers intervened to prevent escalation of the incident and that Francis Hinger refused to leave the building. As Francis Hinger was being arrested, police said, Lorraine Hinger began to "verbally and physically interfere" with her husband's arrest and also refused to leave the building.
Meanwhile, the tort claim said Aronson approached Francis Hinger and shouted at him to leave the courthouse as Hinger tried to protect his wife from the other litigants. Aronson then handcuffed and arrested Hinger, according to the claim. While Aronson was doing so, the claim said, he told McNulty to arrest Lorraine Hinger "without any probable cause of any misconduct."
According to the claim, McNulty ignored Lorraine Hinger's advisories that she had hardware in her neck to stabilize spinal injuries and used "excessive force" in handcuffing her and removing her from the building. Although Lorraine Hinger was in "obvious and excruciating pain," the claim said, she was kept in handcuffs behind her back "for several hours."
Aronson, McNulty and Wright are named as injuring parties in the tort claim, along with "department supervisors and/or shift commanders" and "others to be named as ongoing discovery warrants."
Individual claims in the document include unlawful arrest, false imprisonment, excessive use of force, malicious prosecution, filing a false police report and assault and battery.
