Cops Bill Mom for Dent in Car That Killed Her Son

Grieving mom's lawyer calls $710 bill 'a disgrace'
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 5, 2012 5:16 PM CDT
Cops Bill Mom for Dent in Car That Killed Her Son
An NYPD police car sits in front of the four-bedroom townhouse on Franklin Street in the Tribeca section of downtown Manhattan.   (AP Photo/David Karp)

The NYPD has slapped a grieving mother with a $710 bill—to repair the police car that was dented when it fatally struck her son, the Daily News reports. Police say a cop car chased down 27-year-old Tamon Robinson for stealing decorative stones from the grounds of the housing project where he lived. The car hit Robinson and he fell into a coma, dying 6 days later. His mom, Laverne Dobbinson, says the NYPD only allowed her to stay by her son's bedside for 20 minutes before he died.

Cops also broke into the family's apartment on the day of Robinson's funeral, repairing the door that day and later admitting they had the wrong address. Now her lawyer plans to sue the city over the $710 bill, which he calls a "disgrace. ... In my 40 years of practicing law in this city I have never seen anything as heartless as this." Dobbinson suggests that the police permanently park the dented patrol car—“just like those officers shouldn’t be on the street, either." (More police chase stories.)

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