Daniel Penny's legal team wants a civil judge to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Jordan Neely's father – and make him cover the legal costs – after Penny was acquitted of criminally negligent homicide for a chokehold that put an end to a violent outburst of death threats on a Manhattan subway car.
Andre Zachery sued Penny in December, alleging that Penny negligently assaulted, battered and seriously injured Neely, causing his death.
"All injuries or damages sustained by Plaintiff as alleged in the Verified Complaint, if any, were caused in whole or in part by the culpable conduct, negligence, carelessness, and lack of care on the part of Plaintiff, and any recovery against this Defendant must be diminished in proportion to Plaintiff’s relative wrongdoing, fault, misfeasance, malfeasance, failure to exercise due care and/or other culpable conduct," Penny's attorneys countered in an answer to the lawsuit filed on Monday.
DANIEL PENNY FOUND NOT GUILTY IN SUBWAY CHOKEHOLD TRIAL
Zachery's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The filing comes a month after Penny's acquittal in a high-profile and controversial manslaughter trial. Prosecutors asked the court to dismiss the top charge of manslaughter to avoid a hung jury, and jurors ultimately found Penny not guilty of the lesser charge.
Penny, a 26-year-old Marine veteran and architecture student, was charged for the subway chokehold death of Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man with schizophrenia who barged onto the train shouting death threats while high on a type of synthetic marijuana known as K2. It happened on May 1, 2023.
JORDAN NEELY'S DAD FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST DANIEL PENNY
Neely had a lengthy criminal record, an active arrest warrant, a history of psychosis and was high. He also had the sickle cell trait genetic disorder.
Subway crime has plagued the city in recent years, and there was an atmosphere of fear among riders.
Just three days earlier, a straphanger had been stabbed with an ice pick on a J train, according to reports from the time. It was about a month after a PBS reporter got sucker punched on a No. 4 train. There was a shove a week before that, and the victim hit the side of a moving R train and survived.
Read Daniel Penny's verified answer to the civil complaint from Jordan Neely's father
In that climate of fear, witnesses said they were terrified by Neely, who shouted death threats at them.
But legal experts have predicted Neely's family may fare better in civil court, where there is a lower standard of guilt.
Prosecutors have to convince jurors of criminal charges beyond "reasonable doubt." In a civil case, the plaintiff's attorneys must prove their case based on a "preponderance of evidence," more likely true than not.
