PATERSON The man beaten by two city police officers at a hospital emergency room in 2018 was found dead in his Paterson apartment last week, an apparent victim of death by suicide, according to sources involved in the case.
At the time of his death, Andrew Casciano, 31, had a $4 million lawsuit pending against the city over the assault, which resulted in convictions that sent two Paterson cops Ruben McAusland and Roger Then to federal prison.
Then had recorded the March 5, 2018, attack on his cellphone, and federal law enforcement officials played the video in court when McAusland pleaded guilty earlier this year.
Steven Greene, the lawyer who filed the federal lawsuit on Cascianos behalf, declined to comment Monday morning when asked what impact his clients death would have on the pending case against the city.
Multiple sources said Casciano apparently died by suicide on Dec. 23 at the same Katz Avenue apartment where a previous suicide attempt put him in contact with McAusland and Then at St. Josephs University Medical Center.
One video from the 2018 incident, taken by a hospital security camera, showed McAusland punch Casciano while the victim was sitting in a wheelchair in a crowded emergency room waiting area.
In the second video, taken by Then after hospital security staff moved the patient to a private room, McAusland put on medical gloves and then violently slapped Casciano twice across the face.
Ever since I got punched in the face and abused at the hospital I have been having a very hard time, Casciano said last March in the victim impact statement submitted to a federal judge in the criminal case against McAusland and Then.
Now I am having trouble mostly mentally, Casciano wrote. It has been a very uneasy recovery. The officers who abused me have engraved a very negative memory that often haunts me throughout the day.
Casciano called his March 2018 suicide attempt a very low moment in his life, one he said was worsened by the cops attack.
When this incident occurred, it felt like I was being degraded to an even lower low, Casciano wrote. I have been trying to get my life in order, but it isnt easy.
City officials declined to comment on Cascianos death.
McAusland, who also admitted selling drugs while on duty in his Paterson police vehicle, was sentenced to 66 months in federal prison. His prison term is scheduled to end in January 2024. McAusland had worked as a rehabilitation aide at the hospital from 2010 to 2014 before he became a city police officer.
Then, who admitted pushing Casciano to the ground at the hospital, was sentenced to six months. Federal records show Then has completed his prison sentence and is currently in a reentry program.
Authorities said they found Thens recording of the assault of Casciano when they arrested McAusland on the drug charges, seized his cellphone and reviewed its contents.
McAusland and Then were among seven rogue Paterson cops arrested by the FBI during the past two years. The others Jonathan Bustios, Daniel Pent, Eudy Ramos, Frank Toledo, and Matthew Torres admitted shaking down motorists and their passengers during illegal traffic stops and illegally taking money from people. Those five area awaiting sentencing.