Elmira settles federal lawsuit over police encounter for $2.5M

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The city of Elmira has agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle a federal lawsuit filed almost six years ago by the estate of a man who died in 2019 after a violent interaction with Elmira Police Department officers.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Meredith A. Vacca approved the settlement, which includes $833,333.33 for the Buffalo law firm of VanDette Law PLLC, and the Law Office of Matthew Albert, representing Bryce Strobridge, father of Gary Edward Strobridge and administrator of his estate.

In August 2020, the original complaint was filed against the city of Elmira and seven Elmira Police officers, including Officer Eduardo Oropallo, who was charged in December 2020 with second-degree assault, but acquitted after a jury trial in August 2022.

The case started in the early evening of Aug. 22, 2019, when Gary Strobridge suffered a mental health episode where he climbed onto the roof of his house on Horner Street, in Elmira, and screamed that it was the end of the world.

Police arrived while he was still on his roof, “shouting, and exhibiting signs of a visible, altered mental state,” according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York.

A short time later, Strobridge left the house and an officer tried to grab him from behind. Strobridge threw a punch at the officer and was tackled to the ground.

While several officers restrained Strobridge, one officer shot him with a Taser.

Strobridge was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Elmira where he was noted to be “delusional, presenting with a psychiatric problem, with no previous psychiatric history noted,” according to the suit.

Three officers escorted Strobridge to an examination room, removed his restraints, and left him unattended in violation of general orders, policies, and procedures, according to the complaint.

“After Gary Strobridge left the examination room, he was taken to the ground by the officers,” according to the complaint.

Strobridge was handcuffed from behind and face down on the floor when  Oropallo violently pressed a foot into his neck and head, the suit claims.

Oropallo then “forcibly grabbed Gary Strobridge by the hair on the back of his head, and violently slammed Gary Strobridge’s head and face into the floor twice,” according to the complaint.

“Immediately after having his head violently slammed into the floor twice … Strobridge became limp and unresponsive,” the lawsuit states.

Strobridge was placed on a stretcher and taken to an emergency department room where CPR was started.

“Three rounds of epinephrine were administered with 10 minutes of CPR, and endotracheal intubation, which was complicated by his bleeding. Hospital personnel had noted a significant amount of blood on Gary Strobridge’s face, and his nose was bleeding,” according to the suit.

Strobridge was diagnosed with having suffered cardiac arrest. An ambulance was dispatched to St. Joseph’s Hospital to transport him to Arnot Ogden Medical Center in Elmira, according to the suit.

At Arnot Ogden, Strobridge was admitted to the intensive care unit where he arrived intubated and sedated. CT scanning revealed multiple facial fractures, a right subdural hematoma, and compression fractures.

Medical personnel at Arnot Ogden also noted bruising of the left and right shoulder, left scapular area, top of right arm, center of forehead and above right brow, and a bloody nose.

Strobridge was transferred by helicopter for a higher level of care to Upstate Medical University Surgical Intensive Care Unit in Syracuse.

Strobridge never recovered consciousness following his cardiac arrest on Aug. 22, 2019, and was subsequently pronounced brain dead at 6:30 p.m., six days later on Aug. 28, 2019.

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