Jury Acquits Police Officers in Assault Case Related to Cancer Patient

A jury in Long Island has acquitted four police officers of assault charges tied to a $9 million lawsuit that arose from an incident involving a cancer patient’s broken arm.

The officers—Charles Tramontana, Jesús Faya, Michael Sweet, and Argando Reyes—were found to have acted lawfully when they took down 5-foot-6, 110-pound Marian Ost Czernick outside her home in Jericho in 2019. This encounter followed a chaotic 13-mile chase, during which she was reportedly under the influence of prescription medication and unaware of the situation, according to a decision from a federal jury on Tuesday.

Marian Chernick passed away roughly a year after the incident, but her widow continued to pursue the case.

The Suffolk District Attorney’s Office commented on the verdict, saying, “The jury acknowledged what we have always known: that the officers acted completely appropriately and within the law.”

This episode unfolded on February 9, 2019, when Chernick, who was on painkillers due to stomach cancer, accidentally backed her vehicle into a CVS Pharmacy and drove off without stopping.

After witnesses alerted law enforcement, Chernick was eventually caught on the Long Island Expressway. Instead of complying, she ignored traffic signals and police sirens all the way home, crashing through a security gate before coming to a stop in her driveway, as per court documents.

Her attorney argued that Chernick, having later pled guilty to drunk driving, was under the impression that the police were after someone else, despite them following her directly home.

When police approached her, as she attempted to enter her garage by entering a key code, they pushed her to the ground, handcuffed her, and the resulting force left her with severe injuries, including a face covered in blood and a right arm that required an intensive eight-hour surgery.

Following a brief deliberation, the jury decided it could not conclude that the officers had used excessive force.

Ira Chernick, the widow, expressed her disappointment following the verdict, stating, “There was no justice for her in what they did to her. They were excused, but I’d like to think the lesson was learned.” She’s 75 years old and clearly still grappling with the emotional weight of the situation.