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Attorney: Taxpayers will shell out thousands for retired officer's defamation lawsuit

When a retired Buffalo Police lieutenant won a defamation lawsuit against Cariol Horne, he was awarded $65,000. Interest has accrued, and now he stands to get more.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — It was 2006 when Buffalo Police responded to a call on Walden Avenue. Officers Greg Kwiatkowski and Cariol Horne were among the responding officers. 

Horne said her fellow officer was choking a man at the scene. Kwiatkowski denied it.

Here is what Kwiatkowski told 2 On Your Side about what happened during an interview in 2021. He said he "grabbed (suspect Neal Mack) in a bear hug to try and gain control of him," and added that "within seconds is when Cariol Horne came up started punching me, hitting me in the head area, grabbing me by the back of my bulletproof vest and yanked me forward."

Horne said from that incident she was targeted "and then I was terminated." Her termination was dismissed, and her backpay for two years sits with the City of Buffalo pending the outcome of other cases. 

Kwiatkowski won a defamation lawsuit, and the funds would come from her backpay.

He was paid $20,000 of the $65,000 judgment. Horne's fight in court to get the matter vacated was "denied."

Attorney Frank Jacobson represents Kwiatkowski.

"Interest accrues on judgments in New York State, 9% is the statutory interest that has accrued all the way from 2012 until the present. And now we're we're looking at a balance of about $102,000 that's owed from Miss Horne to Mr. Kwiatkowski," Jacobson said.

Ultimately, it's taxpayers money that will be used because Horne was an employee of the city.

It's taxpayers in the end, because they pay her salary and they pay the interest, Jacobson said.

2 On Your Side reached out to Horne. She said this case is not over.

"We are appealing it. It's a decision that never should have been made in the first place," she said.

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