The outraged family members of two NYPD officers gunned down in chilly blood are combating to maintain the killers from amassing lots of of 1000’s of {dollars} in authorized payouts.
The households of slain Police Officer Russel Timoshenko, who was killed in 2007, and Detective Brian Simonsen, who was murdered in 2019, are submitting lawsuits underneath the state’s “Son of Sam Law,” which prohibits criminals from profiting off their crimes, they informed The Publish.
Lee Woods was convicted of homicide for fatally taking pictures Timoshenko within the face and head throughout a visitors cease in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn. The officer was simply 23 — one of many youngest cops ever killed within the line of obligation.
Woods is about to get $250,000 after suing particular person correction officers and the state in U.S. District Court docket within the Northern District of New York over his alleged mistreatment at most safety Auburn Correctional Facility whereas serving a life sentence for Timoshenko’s demise.
Studying of the settlement enraged the useless police officer’s mother, who left a job in non-public business to work in Info Expertise on the NYPD to really feel nearer to her useless son.
“I don’t want him to be rewarded even one penny for killing my son and being in prison for the crime that he committed,” Tatyana Timoshenko, who moved to the USA along with her husband and son from the Russian republic of Balarus when he was 9, informed The Publish. “I had only one child. I used to live for him and he was stolen from me.”
Timoshenko, 59, and her husband Leonid, are suing Woods in Richmond County Surpreme Court docket to cease the fee.
Russel Timoshenko survived for 5 days within the hospital after he was shot — and his mom remembers how she screamed when he died.
The mother, who nonetheless wears a necklace that holds a tiny silver badge along with her son’s identify on it, spent months along with her faculty bus driver husband sitting in a chair by their son’s grave on the Moravian Cemetery in Staten Island.
At present, that’s the place they are often discovered on holidays, together with Mom’s Day and Father’s Day.
“This is my life,” she mentioned, as tears fell from her eyes. “On the holidays, we visit his grave because he can’t come visit us.”
Simonsen was killed in a hail of bullets fired by different cops after a robber drew a pretend pistol throughout a T-Cell retailer theft in South Richmond Hill, Queens, in February 2019.
His imprisoned killers, Jagger Freeman and Christopher Ransom, are set to obtain $243,900 and $123,600, respectively.
Ransom, who was wielding the prop and sporting a ski masks when he pressured staff to open a secure at the back of the shop, pleaded responsible to aggravated manslaughter and theft in 2021. He was sentenced to 33 years in jail.
Jagger Freeman, who orchestrated the theft, was discovered responsible in 2022 of homicide within the second diploma, theft, assault and grand larceny. He was sentenced to 30 years to life in jail.
They have been amongst 4,000 pretrial detainees who sued the town as a part of a class-action swimsuit, claiming that they have been positioned in solitary confinement in cells at Rikers Island for as much as 23 hours a day.
Simonson’s widow, Leanne, mentioned she was “appalled” to study of the deliberate funds.
“I couldn’t believe that they were getting rewarded for being criminals. It’s like the state is taking sides with the criminals and us victims are just hung out to dry,” she mentioned.
Lawyer James Moschella, who represents the Detectives Endowment Affiliation, filed swimsuit for each police officer households.
“These two cases are the perfect examples of the just and appropriate use of the NYC Executive Law, the so-called Son of Sam law,” mentioned Moschella, of Karasyk Moschella in Manhattan. “It will ensure that these defendants, all of whom are responsible for the murder of two brave NYC police detectives will not profit from their incarceration.”
Moschella filed a lawsuit in Suffolk County Supreme Court docket, the place Simonsen’s widow lives, to cease her husband’s killers from getting the cash. He filed the swimsuit for the Timoshenko household in Richmond County Supreme Court docket.
Detectives Endowment President Scott Munro mentioned the funds may erode public security.
“Pamper cop killers, destroy public safety,” he mentioned. “It’s that simple.”
Attorneys for the inmates of their civil instances didn’t return calls in search of remark.
