Eight Metropolitan Toronto policemen, named in a civil action by a New York rabbi who claimed they assaulted him in 1962, have agreed to an out-of-court settlement, Austin Cooper, the rabbi’s attorney, said today.
Cooper said that the agreement requires a written letter of apology to Rabbi Norbert Leiner from Police Chief James Mackay. The attorney declined to indicate how much money was involved in the settlement but another source said Rabbi Leiner, who had asked $7,000 accepted $4,000.
The defendants in the civil suit, filed on June 11, 1963, were two detectives and six constables. Rabbi Leiner charged he had been unlawfully arrested and imprisoned, detained in custody and assaulted, causing him nervous shock, bruises, sprains and a broken rib. Arrested on January 26, 1962, the rabbi had refused to enter a police car on the Jewish Sabbath and for the same reason he had no identification on his person. He was arrested on vagrancy charges in an area where police were seeking a deviate.
A Royal Commission, headed by Justice Dallon C. Wells, was named to investigate the rabbi’s charges. The Justice found that the rabbi had been arrested unlawfully but that both he and the police were at fault.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
