A Mount Laurel man who claimed he was wrongfully arrested by
the New Jersey State Police over a payment dispute with a Hainesport auto shop
has settled for $150,000.
The state police and the Oil Station repair shop agreed to
pay Richard Greenberg over an incident that started with a partially stopped
payment on a $129 check six years ago.
The state of New Jersey agreed to pay $135,000. The repair
shop agreed to a $15,000 payment, according to Greenberg’s attorney, Michael
Ferrara.
“What happened cannot be permitted under both the United
States and the New Jersey constitutions,” Ferrara said. ‘We are grateful the
attorney general did the right thing to correct this wrong, and hopefully it
will never happen again to anyone.”
Greenberg found himself arrested and taken to the state
police station in Bordentown Township, where he was handcuffed to a bench and
not released until he agreed to pay the shop. He was not charged with a crime,
according to court documents in the case.
He sued the state police for false arrest and imprisonment
in 2007, but a Superior Court judge in Burlington County dismissed the civil
complaint, ruling that authorities had probable cause to take him into custody.
That decision was reversed on appeal in July, and the case
was ordered to be tried before a six-juror panel.
It was settled Wednesday before it could go to trial.
The dispute began when Greenberg went to the shop in January
2007 for an oil change and agreed to a radiator flush and battery cleaning.
But when his car came out of the garage, it had trouble
starting after several battery jumps. The mechanic told him he’d have to get
further repairs elsewhere, because the shop did not have the appropriate
equipment on hand, according to the lawsuit.
Greenberg claimed his car had no history of trouble before
bringing it to the shop.
He paid his bill, including $15 he disputed for the battery
cleaning, and drove it immediately to a Pep Boys, where he claimed it stopped
functioning again.
Mechanics there told him the battery post “had probably snapped.”
Greenberg paid $88 to have a new battery installed, he said in court documents.
He claimed he went back to the Oil Station the next morning
to have the owner adjust the bill, but the owner refused and cursed at him.
The owner said during his deposition that the events
happened differently, that Greenberg was the one loudly cursing in a room full
of customers and threatening to cancel his check.
Greenberg did cancel the check and sent the shop a new one
for $31, the cost of only the oil change. But it was returned by mail cut in
half, court documents state.
The owner went to the state police, which covers enforcement
and patrols for Hainesport, to have a report prepared to take with him to
small-claims court.
After troopers investigated the matter, Greenberg was
arrested without a warrant and without charges pending, his attorney said.
Court documents state that Trooper Nicholas Pryszlak, the
arresting officer, told Greenberg to file the matter in small-claims court if
he was unhappy with the repair shop’s service, before taking him into custody.
Greenberg said that the dispute between him and the repair
shop was already a civil matter, and that the state police should not be
“acting as a collection agency.”
When the matter did make it to small-claims court three
months later, a judge awarded Greenberg a $131 default judgment plus court
costs.
During Pryszlak’s deposition, the trooper said that
Greenberg admitted to canceling the payment, and that his admission that he
knew the check would not be honored was enough evidence for an arrest for a
disorderly-person offense.
While Greenberg was chained to a bench, another trooper told
him, “You’re not such a tough (expletive) now,” according to court documents.
After 15 minutes, when Greenberg agreed to pay the money,
the trooper returned to tell him he was “a lucky man” because the shop had
agreed to accept the money.
Representatives from the auto shop and the New Jersey
Attorney General’s Office could not be immediately reached for comment
Wednesday.