A blue wooden sign with golden engraved letters reads "City of Syracuse, Dept. of Police" on a green lawn outside of the police station downtown. A blue sky shines down on the scene.
Syracuse Police headquarters on South State Street in downtown Syracuse. Credit: Julie McMahon | Central Current

The Syracuse Common Council is expected to vote Monday on a $390,000 settlement split between two people who accused Syracuse police officers of beating them in Armory Square. 

The settlement will end a five-year court battle between Kyle Williams, Rachel Chrysler and the city. Williams and Chrysler sued the officers for using excessive force. Under the settlement, Williams would receive $325,000 and Chrysler would receive $65,000.

Neither a Syracuse Police Department spokesman nor Williams’ and Chrysler’s lawyer, Fred Lichtmacher, responded to Central Current’s requests for comment. 

Williams and Chrysler sued the city over a Sept. 9, 2016 incident that took place on Walton Street and involved officers Gregory DiPuccio and Matthew Liadka, according to a complaint filed in federal court.  

In the complaint, Williams alleged that Liadka and DiPuccio punched and kicked him despite not resisting arrest. Chrysler, 17 at the time of the incident, accused one of the officers of tripping her, causing her to fall face-first to the ground.

Liadka then beat Williams in the ambulance while Williams was handcuffed, causing Williams to suffer broken bones, Williams alleged in the complaint.  Liadka injured Chrysler by sticking his gloved finger into an open wound that she suffered on Walton Street, according to the complaint.

Williams required jaw surgery and medical treatment for damage to his eye socket, while Chrysler required treatment, including sutures for her wounds, the complaint said.

Kyle Williams, left, and Rachel Chrysler, right, after the incident in Armory Square. The photos were filed in their lawsuit in federal court.

Police charged Williams with resisting arrest. He was later acquitted. 

This case is not the first time officer Liadka has been involved in a use of force case. In 2011, Liadka and another officer shot a man three times in his own bedroom while responding to a domestic incident. The man lunged at officers with a wooden martial arts stick, which the officers mistook for an actual samurai sword. A grand jury later determined the officers’ actions to be justified.

In 2021, Liadka was one of four officers involved in the fatal shooting of Allison Lakie in her home on Ulster Street in Tipperary Hill. The New York State’s Attorney General’s office investigated the incident and declined to file criminal charges against the officers – but stopped short of declaring their actions to be justified.

DiPuccio, meanwhile, cost city taxpayers $740,000 in two separate traffic collisions that happened just months apart in 2017. 

DiPuccio rear-ended a vehicle on Fayette Street in March of 2017. The city settled with the driver of the vehicle and paid him $40,000.

The city also settled with Frederick Farwell for $700,000. Farwell was bicycling in the city’s South West side when DiPuccio sped through an intersection and hit Farwell, according to a lawsuit filed in state court. Farwell suffered severe head trauma and broken bones. He will require assistance for the rest of his life, according to his lawsuit.

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Patrick McCarthy is a staff reporter at Central Current covering government and politics. A graduate of Syracuse University’s Maxwell and Newhouse Schools, McCarthy was born and raised in Syracuse and...