The NYPD officer who put Eric Garner in the chokehold that led to his death last summer is being sued — yet again.
Daniel Pantaleo was recently named as a defendant in a civil suit filed in Queens Supreme Court against the NYPD, which alleges that the officer crashed his police vehicle into another man’s car on Staten Island on June 20, causing him “severe and permanent” injuries.
Leonardo Aguirre claims that Pantaleo was speeding and following him too closely in his 2010 Chevrolet when the two got into an accident about 15 minutes away from the cop’s 120th Precinct stationhouse, according to legal papers filed with the city.
The crash on Clove Road at Martha St. left Aguirre with injuries to his neck, back, left shoulder and knees, the documents allege.
The Friday afternoon collision occurred just weeks before the officer prompted a national outcry about police tactics after he was caught in a video — first published by the Daily News — putting the unarmed Garner in a chokehold during an arrest for selling loose cigarettes on July 17.
Garner died, igniting protests around the nation.
After the June auto crash, police bungled their report of the incident, misspelling Pantaleo’s name in the paperwork as “Daniel Pantaelo.”
A police source described the pileup differently, saying Pantaleo was driving a marked patrol car while responding to an assault call with his emergency lights on, when his car was struck by another vehicle.
At least four New Yorkers have previously filed suits against the 29-year-old Pantaleo, including Darren Collins and Tommy Rice, who won a $30,000 settlement after charging that Pantaleo strip-searched them in public after a Staten Island traffic stop in 2012 and slapped their testicles.
Even the Legal Aid Society filed a lawsuit against the Civilian Complaint Review Board — a regulatory board charged with oversight of the NYPD — in an attempt to have Pantaleo’s disciplinary history released, The News previously reported.
While a Staten Island grand jury decided not to indict Pantaleo in connection with Garner’s death, the NYPD continues to conduct its own investigation of the incident.
Representatives from the Justice Department have said they are also looking at the death, which Pantaleo has said he felt “very bad” about.
Pantaleo, who started at the NYPD in 2006, remains on modified duty, a department spokesman said.
Lawyers for Aguirre declined to provide any more details about the crash until the city’s lawyers had a chance to respond.
