A former Port Authority cop cried Friday as a jury found him not guilty of kneeing the state GOP finance chairman in the groin during a traffic stop.
“Vindicated!” said former Officer John Fitzpatrick triumphantly, his eyes welling, as he left Manhattan Criminal Court. “It was a year and a half of hell.”
It took the panel of six jurors under four hours to find Fitzpatrick not guilty of third-degree assault for attacking Arcadio Casillas, 70, in Midtown during a traffic stop.
Their decision capped a bizarre trial where jurors were bombarded with explicit photos of what prosecutors said were the victim’s battered genitals.
Fitzpatrick lost his job as a deputy inspector with the Port Authority Police Department after the Jan. 7, 2017, run-in with the GOP operative.
After Casillas lodged the complaint against Fitzpatrick, he followed up with a $100 million lawsuit against the former cop and the transportation agency.
Defense lawyer Marvyn Kornberg, grinning widely after the win, said they hit Casillas with a countersuit “for causing the Port Authority, without proper evidence, to fire him.”
He added, “We just saved the city a lot of money.”
The ex-cop and his legal team celebrated the victory with a bottle of Chianti and eggplant parmesan at Italian restaurant Forlini’s — a longtime fixture near the courthouse.
The altercation allegedly began when Fitzpatrick pulled over the taxi Casillas was riding in after the driver cut him off.
An irate Casillas, who had just tossed back several drinks at the ritzy Union League Club, hopped out of the cab and demanded Fitzpatrick’s identification.
When the off-duty cop refused, Casillas alleged railed, “I know Donald Trump! I will have your job for this!” Casillas denies the accusation.
On the stand, the GOP fundraiser cried as he told jurors that Fitzpatrick hit him on the head, kneed him twice in the genitals, then fled.
Kornberg argued in closings that Casillas suspiciously didn’t mention the traumatic injury to EMS, the hospital doctor or his personal doctor.
“There isn’t a man alive, ladies and gentleman, who wouldn’t be telling his doctor,” the lawyer said of an excruciating blow to the groin.
“We don’t know that these pictures are his testicles,” the lawyer suggested. This man just makes things up.”
Casillas didn’t respond to a request for comment.