Eric Garner: a chokehold on Staten Island
In 2014, a man died during an arrest on Staten Island after an officer used a chokehold. The City of New York paid his estate $5.9 million the next summer, before any lawsuit was filed, and six years later the State made the chokehold a felony under his name.
A public record, not a client of this firm. Everything on this page comes from the court file, the government announcement or the reporting cited at the end. Usher Law Group did not represent anyone in this matter, we publish no results of our own, and nothing here predicts the outcome of any other case.
The public record of Eric Garner's death is short and it is not disputed. On a Staten Island street in 2014, during an arrest, an officer used a chokehold. Mr. Garner died. The rest of the story is what the City and the State did about it, and that record is longer.
The first thing the City did was pay. In July 2015 the New York City Comptroller announced a pre-litigation settlement with his estate: $5.9 million, before a complaint was ever filed, and with no admission of liability. A pre-litigation settlement is unusual. It means the Comptroller, who handles claims against the City before they become lawsuits, looked at the notice of claim and decided not to wait for a judge.
The second thing took longer. In 2020 the State of New York enacted the Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act, Penal Law 121.13-a. An officer who uses a chokehold or otherwise obstructs a person's breathing and causes serious physical injury or death commits aggravated strangulation, a class C felony. The City went further. Administrative Code 10-181 makes it a misdemeanor for an officer to use a chokehold at all, or to compress a person's diaphragm by sitting, kneeling or standing on the chest or back. The police union challenged the City law, and in November 2023 the Court of Appeals upheld it.
That is the whole arc of a police abuse case, seen from the outside: a death, a claim, a payment, and a change in the law that came too late for the person it is named after.
What the law calls it
Force used during an arrest is judged under the Fourth Amendment by objective reasonableness: the severity of the crime, whether the person posed an immediate threat, whether the person was actively resisting or fleeing (Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989)). A death from a restraint is analyzed the same way, and the Supreme Court has said there is no rule that holding a person prone is reasonable just because the person resisted; the inquiry is fact-specific (Lombardo v. City of St. Louis, 594 U.S. 464 (2021)).
The federal claim is against the officer under 42 U.S.C. 1983, and against the City only where a policy or custom caused the violation (Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658 (1978)). The state-law claims, assault, battery and wrongful death, run against the City as the officer's employer, and in New York they begin with a notice of claim within 90 days. The Garner settlement was a claim, not a verdict, so no court ever ruled on any of this.
What it cost
Estate of Eric Garner
A chokehold death during an arrest on Staten Island in 2014. The Comptroller settled the claim before a lawsuit was filed.
Source: NYC Comptroller. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
What it means for you
If a family member died in an encounter with police in New York, two clocks start at once. The state-law wrongful death claim against the City needs a notice of claim within 90 days, and the Comptroller can settle it, as it did here, before a suit is filed. The federal claim under Section 1983 has a three-year limitation period and no notice requirement, and it is the claim that can reach the officer personally. Our wrongful death page explains who can bring each claim and the deadline tool counts the days from your date.
If you were choked or restrained and survived, the same force analysis applies, and the two chokehold statutes matter in a different way: they are the clearest statement New York has made about what an officer may not do. Read Tasers, chokeholds and restraints for how a restraint claim is built, and excessive force for the standard every one of these claims is measured against.
The pages this story points to
Chokeholds and restraints
The claim, the two New York statutes, and what the record has to show.
Read →Death after a police encounter
Who brings the claim, and the two deadlines that start on the same day.
Read →What New York pays
The federal claim, the state claims, and the public settlements on record.
Read →Sources. NYC Comptroller, announcement of the pre-litigation settlement with the estate of Eric Garner (July 2015); N.Y. Penal Law 121.13-a (nysenate.gov); N.Y.C. Admin. Code 10-181 and Police Benevolent Ass'n v. City of New York (N.Y. Nov. 20, 2023).
Common questions
Was anyone convicted for Eric Garner's death?
This page does not say, because the public records we rely on for it do not address a prosecution. The settlement was a civil claim, paid by the City with no admission of liability. A criminal charge and a civil claim are separate tracks, and the absence of one does not decide the other.
Is a chokehold illegal in New York now?
Under New York Penal Law 121.13-a, the Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act of 2020, an officer who uses a chokehold or obstructs breathing and causes serious physical injury or death commits aggravated strangulation, a class C felony. New York City's own law, Administrative Code 10-181, makes it a misdemeanor for an officer to use a chokehold or to compress the diaphragm by sitting, kneeling or standing on a person's chest or back; the Court of Appeals upheld it in November 2023.
Tell us what happened.
One conversation with an attorney, in your language. We tell you which claims the facts support, which deadline runs first for the agency involved, what evidence to preserve this week, and whether a pending criminal case changes the timing. If it is not a case we can take, we say so and tell you where to go.
(718) 484-7510If a criminal charge is still open, talk to your defense lawyer before you describe the arrest to anyone, including us. English, Russian and Spanish in-house; an interpreter for any other language. Contingency fee, confirmed in writing before we begin.