Legal fight over Lowery police death now also before state court
By: Joe Malinconico
Paterson Press
PATERSON - the lawsuit over Jameek Lowery's 2019 police-custody death is moving ahead on two separate tracks: an appeal in federal court and a new complaint filed on October 10 [2025] in state court.
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The parallel legal proceedings stem from a federal judge's decision last month [09/2025] dismissing the Lowery family's claims that Paterson and three city police officers violated civil rights in the fatal encounter.
..... In that same opinion, the federal judge, Michael Farbiarz, said he had no jurisdiction to rule on New Jersey state laws involved in the Lowery family's claims of wrongful death, excessive force and assault against the city and its police officers.
..... The new state lawsuit filed by the family's attorneys restates allegations from the federal case, which accuse the police of causing Lowery's death by punching, choking and restraining him in the back of an ambulance that would take him from Paterson police headquarters to St. Joseph's University Medical Center.
..... Lowery resisted the officers' attempts to load him into the ambulance outside headquarters, court records show, Lowery had lost consciousness by the time the ambulance arrived at the hospital, multiple witness accounts said.
..... Lowery's death sparked numerous protests in downtown Paterson in January 2019. the New Jersey Medical Examiner's Office said in its autopsy that Lowery died from :cardiac Arrest during Active Psychosis" while under the influence of illegal drugs.
..... The Passaic County Prosecutor's Office determined that the three Paterson offices who placed him in the ambulance committed no crimes.
..... Minutes before being put in the ambulance, Lowery recorded a frantic Facebook Live video in which he said he was paranoid after taking drugs and feared that police officers wanted to kill him. It remains unclear how much Paterson has spent on legal expenses in the lengthy litigation. Paterson Press on September 26 [2025] field a public records request with the city for documents with information on the total fees.
..... Mayor Andre Sayegh's administration has not provided a response in that records request, despite a state law requiring government to do so within seven business days.