Before the incident, the officer had nightmares about being shot or shooting an unarmed civilian.
CAMDEN -- Appellate judges granted a new civil trial against a Camden police officer who shot a man in the torso in 2009, ruling that jurors should have been told he had mental health issues.
The three judges of the appellate division of the New Jersey Superior Court said in their decision Wednesday that the jury also could have been biased against the shooting victim, Leonides Velazquez, because an assistant prosecutor testified that then-officer Alexis Ramos was not charged in the shooting.
Velazquez filed a civil rights suit against Ramos after the Camden city officer shot him twice on Jan. 2, 2009 in front of his home during a verbal argument involving multiple people.
The jury found no civil rights violation, but Wednesday's decision grants a new trial on the basis that the trial judge made two incorrect decisions.
First, he did not allow Velazquez's attorney to present evidence that Ramos may have had psychological issues that affected his ability to assess the scene that ended in the shooting.
After a fellow officer was shot 18 months previous, Ramos had suffered from nightmares in which he "dreamed he was shot by a citizen or in turn shot and killed an unarmed person," Judge Allison E. Accurso wrote in the decision.
The judge also erred when he allowed an assistant prosecutor to testify that Ramos was not charge in the shooting, the appellate judges found.
Ramos filed for disability a few weeks after the shooting and has not worked as a police officer since then.
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According to the decision, jurors heard that Velazquez, then 22, was outside his home in Camden when his girlfriend's mother and sister arrived and began accusing him of hitting his girlfriend and breaking a window at her home.
One woman threw a rock at the Velazquez, Accurso wrote, and Velazquez picked it up.
"As he stood up, rock in hand, Ramos appeared and shot him," Accurso wrote.
Ramos said it was a piece of cement 18 to 29 inches across and Velazquez brandished it over his head with both hands, but witnesses who testified all agreed it fit into the palm of one hand and was never held over his head. It was a broken piece of landscaping brick, the judge wrote.
Ramos also testified that he told Velazquez to put it down several times before shooting him twice in the torso.
Jurors heard testimony about "tunnel vision" possibly causing Ramos to misperceive the size of the rock, but the trial judge barred them from hearing about Ramos' psychological issues.
Ramos had been experiencing nightmares following the shooting of an officer, and had been placed on light duty, relieved of his service weapon and removed from the SWAT team. He returned to full duty in July 2007 and continued to be treated by a social worker, the decision stated.
The psychologist wrote at one point that Ramos' "sleep disturbances," anxiety and lack of concentration "could compromise the quality of his judgments in risky or sensitive situations."
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The judges determined that while an officer's mental health records are not always admissible in use of force trials, in this case they were "relevant, and thus admissible, to assess his credibility and evaluate his subjective perceptions of the threat plaintiff posed."
The trial judge also should not have allowed Ramos' attorney to call former assistant prosecutor Greg Smith to testify that he had reviewed the use of force case and decided not to charge Ramos, according to the decision.
"Having the head of the homicide unit in the prosecutor's officer offer his opinion that Ramos should not face criminal charges based on the investigation conducted, in our view impermissibly risked tipping the scales on that very close question in defendants' favor," the decision states.
Attorney Mark Frost, who represents Velazquez, told the Courier-Post that his client is "elated" that he will get another chance to prove his case against Ramos.
He told the newspaper that since the shooting, Velazquez has a limp and has been hospitalized several times.
Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.