Published: April 21, 2008 05:23 pm      

CITY OF LOCKPORT: Man sues city for over $150 million (5:23 p.m.)

A paralyzed man has sued the City of Lockport and two city police officers for over $150 million, alleging an officer pushed him down the stairs after responding to a burglar alarm at his home.

Christopher M. Bower, 38, suffered a broken neck resulting in quadriplegia when he fell down a flight of stairs in the early morning hours of Jan. 14, 2007.

Bower claims he was pushed down the stairs by an officer though a police report of the incident says Bower, who was intoxicated, lost his balance and fell.

Bower is seeking $50 million from the City of Lockport, and an additional $50 million each from the two officers he said were involved in the incident. He is seeking an additional $1 million from each officer in punitive damages.

The lawsuit says that officers Dennis “Zabrowski” — an apparent reference to Dennis Sobieraski — and Gregory Chambers responded to the Highland Drive home of Bower’s uncle, Willard Daniels, where Bower was staying, for a report of an active burglar alarm.

According to the police report, the alarm company told police Bower was at the home and did not have the code to turn off the alarm.

The report, written by Chambers, does not mention any other officer’s presence.

According to the report, officers arrived about 4:45 a.m. and found the garage door unlocked. They entered and knocked on the inside door to the home, announced their presence and went inside, the report said.

The officers reportedly found Bowers asleep in an upstairs bedroom. He reportedly had a black eye.

They woke him up and told him the alarm was going off, and he got out of bed and began to walk downstairs, but “lost his balance and fell to the bottom of the stairs.”

Bower’s lawsuit tells a different story, alleging that “Zabrowski” “willfully and maliciously ... struck and pushed (Bower), causing him to fall down a flight of stairs, casing catastrophic personal injuries.”

Meanwhile, the lawsuit alleges, Chambers “took no action at all, allowing (”Zabrowski”) to attack the plaintiff.”

The law allows for a 90-day window for a plaintiff to serve the city with a notice of claim. Bower has applied for an extension of that deadline, claiming he had no memory of the incident until October 2007, well past the 90-day window.

He is scheduled to appear in State Supreme Court on May 8, when Justice Richard C. Kloch Sr. will decide if the lawsuit can go forward.

Bower’s attorney, David G. Jay, said he expects Kloch to allow the extension.

“I’m confident we will be permitted to proceed,” he said.

Bower, who now resides in the Erie County Home in Alden, wrote in court papers that he had gone out the night before the incident and was brought home by friends.

“I retired in my bed on the upper floor ... and fell asleep,” he wrote. “For the longest time ... that was the only thing I remembered about that night.”

He said he initially remembered nothing else before waking up from a drug-induced coma at Erie County Medical Center

Hospital records, included as an exhibit with the lawsuit, indicate Bower had alcohol and cocaine in his bloodstream when he was admitted to the hospital. Bower underwent inpatient treatment for alcohol, cocaine and heroin addiction at ECMC in 2005, the records say.

As he recovered at Erie County Home, Bower wrote, he began to remember details about the incident. By late October, he said, “I had recall sufficient to advise my friends that the fall was not accidental as had been reported.”

Bower now remembered that he was woken up from a sound sleep by the officers, who told him the alarm was going off. He wrote that he recognized “Zabrowski” because the men had played baseball together.

“I considered him a friend,” Bower wrote.

Bower said Chambers asked him who he was working for, and when Bower told him, “Zabrowski” said, “You work for that (racial slur).”

Bower said he got up out of bed to turn the alarm off, and “Zabrowski” pushed him out of the door. He said he hit the wall and fell down the stairs.

“As I was falling, I remember that I asked them for help,” Bower said.

Bower signed all court papers with an “X,” because he is no longer able to write his signature.

Jay said Bower’s condition is “not going to change.”

“He cannot use his legs. He can’t use his left arm at all,” he said. “If (the incident) happened as he says, it’s unbelievable.”

Contact reporter April Amadon at 439-9222, ext. 6251.