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Lawyer Fired by Eric Garner's Family Wants Share of $6.9M Settlement

By Nicholas Rizzi | January 29, 2016 3:31pm
 Attorney Sanford Rubenstein — who was fired by the Eric Garner family after he was accused of rape — has asked the court for a piece of the $6.9 million wrongful death settlement for Garner.
Attorney Sanford Rubenstein — who was fired by the Eric Garner family after he was accused of rape — has asked the court for a piece of the $6.9 million wrongful death settlement for Garner.
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Getty Images/Stephen Chirnin

STATEN ISLAND — A lawyer for Eric Garner's family — who was fired after being accused of rape — wants a piece of the family's $6.9 million wrongful death settlement, according to court documents.

Sanford Rubenstein's law firm, Rubenstein and Rynecki, has asked a Staten Island court to give it a piece of the $2.3 million in lawyer's fees that were awarded, the Staten Island Advance first reported.

"We’re saying that we’re entitled to a percentage of the fee. [The current lawyers are] trying to have us excluded," said Scott Rynecki, Rubenstein's law partner.

"We wish the family well, we will never do anything to interfere with the family receiving their funds, this is simply about the lawyer fee."

In July, the city reached a $5.9 million settlement with the family over the wrongful death suit filed by Rubenstein in October. The family also settled with Richmond University Medical Center — which employed the EMS workers who responded to Garner's arrest — for $1 million, according to court documents.

The family's current law firm, Beldock Levine & Hoffman LLP, laid out a proposal for how the money should be doled out in court filings. They asked the court to exclude Rubenstein and Rynecki because they simply filed the notice of claim.

Rynecki said that his firm had numerous meetings — with the district attorney and others — involving the case, had the estate appointed and was present for a full review of Garner's autopsy while working on the case.

"There’s quite a bit of work that went into this," he said.

The family's current lawyer, Jonathan Moore, did not respond to a request for comment.

Shortly after Rubenstein filed the notice for the family, he was accused of rape by a Brooklyn woman who worked with the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network. The Manhattan District Attorney's office later decided not to prosecute the allegations.

The accusations led to the administrator of Garner's estate, his mother Gwen Carr, to fire Rubenstein and Rynecki and hire Beldock, Levine and Hoffman LLP to handle the case instead, according to the filings.

The documents also outline how the Garner family wants to divvy up the settlement money. His widow Esaw Snipes is set to get $2.4 million paid out over time with their four children receiving between $195,000 to $430,104 each.

A 2-year old child Garner had with another partner will get $996,984 from the settlement, according to court documents.

Garner, 43, died in 2014 as he was being arrested for allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes on a Staten Island street corner.

Video taken by Ramsey Orta showed NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo putting Garner into an apparent chokehold to bring him to the ground while Garner pleaded "I can't breathe" numerous times.

A grand jury eventually declined to charge Pantaleo for Garner's death. Another officer on the scene — Sgt. Kizzy Adonis — was hit with disciplinary charges by the NYPD earlier this month for failure to supervise officers on the scene.