The City Settles

Police union president John Davidson, then an officer, and his partner were accused of framing a man on drug possession charges after he complained about their conduct during a traffic stop. That claim is among settlements City Hall is poised to approve.

John Davidson, president of the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association. Photo: WKBW 7 News.

The City of Buffalo’s law department this week asked the Common Council to approve $1.68 million in settlements to lawsuits against the city — most stemming from encounters between police and civilians.

The largest of the settlements — $700,000 — stems from an incident nearly seven years ago involving the current president of the city’s police union and his partner. 

On Memorial Day 2019, Bruce McNeil was stopped while driving down Broadway by Officer John Davidson — now the president of the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association — and his partner, Officer Patrick Garry. The officers wouldn’t tell him the reason for the stop, according to McNeil’s court papers, but pulled him out of the car, handcuffed him, put him in the back of their patrol car and searched his vehicle. They found no contraband and let him go.

Here’s where McNeil’s story takes a turn toward a six-figure settlement.

Driving home, McNeil “noticed that the hood on his vehicle started to bounce up and down,” which he suspected was the result of damage the officers did during their search. So he went to C District headquarters on East Ferry Street to lodge a complaint about both the search and the damage. According to McNeil’s court papers, a lieutenant there, Patrick Boice, told him “to leave and not return”; and “that he would go to jail if he again tried to make a complaint” because McNeil had marijuana in his car, which McNeil denied.

McNeil went home, told his family about the incident, then returned to C District with his mother. They spoke to another lieutenant, Jenny Velez, while a number of patrol officers listened in on the conversation.

Those officers, according to McNeil’s complaint, “conspired to allege that Officers Davidson and Garry found crack cocaine in the back of their patrol car,” which they claimed belonged to McNeil. 

Velez told McNeil he was being charged with possession, based on Davidson and Garry’s claim that the drugs were his. McNeil protested the charge. Velez told him, “It’s too late, you should have left.” McNeil was booked and detained at the Erie County Holding Center. His arrest made The Buffalo News. 

Prosecutors offered McNeil a plea deal, which he refused. He was acquitted in December 2019 after a brief trial in which prosecutors declined to call Davidson and Garry to testify under oath.

A few months after the acquittal, in April 2020, Garry pulled McNeil over twice in three days — the second time driving his patrol car across a median to follow McNeil’s vehicle into a gas station. When McNeil asked why he was being pulled over, Garry told him, “I heard you didn’t accept the plea deal,” according to the complaint. 

Once again Garry handcuffed McNeil, put him in the back of his patrol car, searched his vehicle, then released him with no charges or citations. McNeil filed a lawsuit in federal court in July 2020. 

Garry is now a detective assigned to E District, headquartered on Bailey Avenue, and earned $136,412 last year, according to payroll records. Davidson, who has been president of the police union since January 2025, earned $139,666.

Same cops, different lawsuits

This is the second time in recent months the city has paid to settle a lawsuit involving Garry.

Last fall the city agreed to pay $41,500 to Chevalier Jones, who in 2023 was beaten, then arrested, by Garry and other officers outside a Sycamore Street convenience store, according to court papers. Jones objected when officers shone a flashlight into his car, where his daughter and her mother, Rochelle Alston, were waiting for him. 

The ensuing argument led to obstruction charges, which were eventually dropped. Alston sued as well. The city paid her $11,500, bringing the total cost of the incident to $53,000. Both checks were cut in February, according to city records.

In 2024, Davidson and Garry cost taxpayers another $35,000.

Jenneice Morris and three friends in April 2019 were returning to her house from a late-night run to Tim Hortons. The driver, Akeel Ward, pulled into her driveway, and all were about to get out when Davidson and Garry approached the car. The officers claimed Ward failed to signal a turn and “the vehicle’s license plate lamp was inoperable,” according to a departmental investigation into the incident.

“Get the fuck back into the vehicle,” Garry said, according to the court papers. “Don’t move or I’ll end all of you right now, and put all of your brains over the dashboard.”

The officers, in their efforts to keep the friends from exiting the vehicle, “repeatedly slammed the car doors on the injured Plaintiffs’ legs, even though both Plaintiffs explained that they both had preexisting leg injuries and were in fact disabled,” according to the complaint. Eventually the officers allowed them to get out and searched the vehicle, where they found a bottle of brandy. Nobody was arrested.

Morris and her friends sued in April 2020 and the city settled four years later — $20,000 for Morris, $15,000 for her friend Justin Pearsall, who claimed Garry punched him in the face. Neither Davidson nor Garry faced departmental discipline.

Meanwhile, Davidson’s actions in a high-profile case are subject to a pending lawsuit that may prove costly to taxpayers. 

In March 2020, Davidson and Officer Andrew Moffett arrested Morgan Eaton after pulling him over for failure to signal a turn. Claiming to smell marijuana, Davidson and Moffett searched Eaton’s car, where they found a small amount of marijuana and, in a laptop bag belonging to Eaton’s fiancé, an unlabeled vial containing capsules filled with white powder. 

Moffett — with body cameras rolling — performed chemical field tests on the powder. The results were negative, but Davidson insisted it was cocaine. 

“I mean, that looks just like crack,” he said, according to a Buffalo News account. He signed a charging document to that effect, saying he did “recognize the white powder like substance in question to be powder cocaine.” 

The capsules were suppositories for a yeast infection.

Eaton spent the night in jail and was charged with possession of cocaine with intent to sell. The district attorney eventually dropped the charges, Moffett and Davidson were suspended 30 days without pay, and Eaton sued in state court in May 2021. The case is moving toward trial.

In response to the McNeil settlement, Davidson provided a statement to The Buffalo News:

“Unfortunately, members of the Buffalo PBA – myself included – have no say over whether the lawsuits in which we’re involved get settled, or go to trial. The reality is that the City’s Law Department is understaffed and couldn’t possibly defend every case at a trial, even when members of the Buffalo PBA would like our day in court.”

This week’s other settlements

Here’s a rundown of the other settlements sent to the Council this week for approval, in order of costliness:

Jessica Wallace-Sims, $375,000, and Joseph Thomas, $175,000: Thomas in August 2018 was driving his pickup truck through the intersection of Best Street and Fillmore Avenue when he collided with a police vehicle driven by Officer Sarah Bak. Joseph filed a lawsuit in February 2019. He said he had the green light; the officer said he didn’t. 

The collision propelled Bak’s cop car into a vehicle driven by Jessica Wallace-Sims, who also sued and said Joseph had the green light. All three vehicles were badly damaged and everyone suffered injuries. The claims were combined and settled just before they went to trial.

Denise and Randall Feinen, $245,000: In June 2017 Randall visited a city-owned building at 735 Humboldt Parkway to consider “a potential purchase for redevelopment,” according to a deposition he gave to city attorneys. He made an appointment with the city’s real estate division and two city employees let him in to look around. While descending from the second floor, the staircase collapsed and he fell, suffering injuries that incurred “great medical expenses” and prevented him from pursuing “his usual activities and employment,” according to the lawsuit he filed the following year. 

Myles Carter, $100,000: Carter was attending a police misconduct protest at Bailey and Weston avenues on June 1, 2020 — one of many demonstrations that summer in Buffalo and across the country following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. Carter was being interviewed on camera by a reporter when a group of Buffalo police officers tackled him, pinned him to the ground, and zip-tied his hands together. He was arrested and hit with various charges, all of which were dropped in March 2022. Carter filed a lawsuit in federal court two months after the charges were dismissed.