Islip Terrace man sues Suffolk police, alleges excessive force and injuries

Anthony Barbato of Islip Terrace says a Suffolk police encounter left him with a broken rib, a torn meniscus and lasting pain after he tried to confront the driver of a vehicle that had hit his son’s car and fled.

In a federal complaint filed April 21 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Barbato accuses Suffolk County, the Suffolk County Police Department, Sgt. Christopher Stokes, Police Officer Anthony Fusco and John Does 1 through 5 of excessive force, false detention and false arrest. The suit says the incident happened Jan. 23, 2025, while Barbato was engaged in lawful activity, and says he later was treated for a broken rib, back pain, knee pain, neck pain and a torn meniscus.

The complaint says Barbato feared he was having a heart attack and asked for an ambulance. It alleges officers told him, “If you need an ambulance, we will have to arrest you.” Filed by attorney Frederick K. Brewington, the lawsuit seeks monetary relief, declaratory judgment, compensatory and punitive damages, costs and fees under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and New York law, and asks for a jury trial.

The case lands in a county where police oversight remains under close scrutiny. Suffolk County’s Human Rights Commission began formally accepting and reviewing police misconduct complaints on March 6, 2023, as part of the county’s Police Reform and Reinvention Plan, and a commission annual report said nearly 400 complaints were reviewed between March 2023 and May 2024. That volume suggests the Barbato lawsuit is not emerging in a vacuum, but in a system still trying to prove it can police itself.

Courts have also kept pressure on Suffolk’s force. In Mac v. County of Suffolk, an Appellate Division ruling issued Dec. 18, 2024, revived a battery claim in a separate excessive-force case involving allegations that two officers twice used a Taser on a woman who was lying face down and handcuffed. Another New York court fight involving Newsday helped force Suffolk County Police Department misconduct records into public view, underscoring the county’s continuing transparency disputes.

For Suffolk residents, Barbato’s allegations turn on a simple but high-stakes question: when a dispute over a hit-and-run becomes a police encounter, how much force is too much, and what happens when the person on the ground says he needs medical help first.