Sharpsburg and Etna have agreed to pay the family of a Sharpsburg man $300,000 to settle a wrongful death lawsuit, according to court documents filed today.
Gregory Nykiel, 34, was arrested in 2006 in Shaler after a car chase that started in Sharpsburg and wound through several communities. He died two hours after his arrest.
His wife, Cheryl Nykiel of Verona, claimed in the lawsuit that police beat and repeatedly shocked her husband with a stun gun at the Sharpsburg police station. Sharpsburg officials said he suffered minor injuries when he resisted arrest and later started having violent seizures at the station.
Nykiel originally sued 10 municipalities and their police departments as well as 19 individual officers or police officials. She previously settled with 19 of the defendants and others were dismissed from the case. The remaining defendants were Sharpsburg police Chief Leo Rudzki, Blawnox police Officer Thomas Duffy and Etna police Officer Chad Mitchell, according to the settlement motion filed today.
Nykiel's heirs will receive $210,000 from the final settlement while their attorneys will receive $90,000, according to the motion.
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