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Rhode Island Man Pummeled By Cranston Police Officer Settles With City.

A 29-year-old man who was pum­meled by a police offi­cer while in cus­tody in 2020 reached a $90,000 set­tle­ment with the City of Cranston and his attack­er over the assault.

Gian Mattiello, of Cranston, agreed to set­tle with the city and its police depart­ment over his assault in March 2020 by for­mer Police Officer Andrew Leonard as he was being booked at police head­quar­ters fol­low­ing a domes­tic dis­pute with his brother.

Gian Mattiello under cross examination in his May 2021 trial.
Gian Mattiello under cross exam­i­na­tion in his May 2021 trial.

In May 2021, District Court Magistrate J. Patrick O’Neill found Leonard guilty of sim­ple assault after a bench tri­al. The judge reject­ed Leonard’s argu­ments that he used rea­son­able force and was try­ing to pro­tect him­self after Mattiello reached for his belt. Instead, O’Neill con­clud­ed that Leonard had missed oppor­tu­ni­ties to de-esca­late ten­sions with Mattiello, who appears to be try­ing to pro­voke the offi­cer in sur­veil­lance video footage.

O’Neill took notice, in par­tic­u­lar, of images that showed Leonard giv­ing Mattiello a shot with his knee after bar­rag­ing him with punches.

Cranston Police Officer Andrew Leonard received a year of probation, with no prison time, for assaulting an unarmed prisoner.
Cranston Police Officer Andrew Leonard received a year of pro­ba­tion, with no prison time, for assault­ing an unarmed prisoner.

“That knee is an assault on a defense­less per­son who just caught a beat­ing,” O’Neill said.

Leonard, 47, ini­tial­ly appealed the ver­dict to Superior Court, but in September opt­ed to admit to the crime rather than head to trial.

Judge Richard Raspallo gave Leonard, who had been on the force for more than two decades pri­or to the inci­dent, one year of pro­ba­tion after he plead­ed no con­test to sim­ple assault.

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Mattiello sued the city, the Police Department, Leonard, and Officers Zachary Burns and Thomas Levy in U.S. District Court fol­low­ing O’Neill’s ver­dict, argu­ing that his rights had been vio­lat­ed when he was sub­ject­ed to exces­sive force by Leonard. He accused Burns and Levy of fail­ing to inter­vene to pro­tect him from Leonard.

Mattiello sought $2 mil­lion in dam­ages for emo­tion­al dis­tress, med­ical expens­es, lost earn­ings and legal fees.

Mattiello agreed to release his claims and dis­miss the suit after reach­ing a nego­ti­at­ed set­tle­ment with the par­ties late last month. The agree­ment spec­i­fies that it should not be con­strued as an admis­sion of lia­bil­i­ty on the part of the City of Cranston or the Police Department.

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Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. entered an order accept­ing the set­tle­ment agree­ment on Dec. 5.

The city was rep­re­sent­ed by Patrick McBurney and William O’Gara, of Pannone Lopes Devereaux & O’Gara, with Michael J. Colucci also rep­re­sent­ing Leonard. Carl H. Hurvich rep­re­sent­ed Mattiello.