The outraged loved ones of two NYPD officers gunned down in cold blood are fighting to keep the killers from collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal payouts.
The families of slain Police Officer Russel Timoshenko, who was killed in 2007, and Detective Brian Simonsen, who was murdered in 2019, are filing lawsuits under the state’s “Son of Sam Law,” which prohibits criminals from profiting off their crimes, they told The Post.
Lee Woods was convicted of murder for fatally shooting Timoshenko in the face and head during a traffic stop in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn. The officer was just 23 — one of the youngest cops ever killed in the line of duty.
Woods is set to get $250,000 after suing individual correction officers and the state in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of New York over his alleged mistreatment at maximum security Auburn Correctional Facility while serving a life sentence for Timoshenko’s death.
Learning of the settlement enraged the dead police officer’s mom, who left a job in private industry to work in Information Technology at the NYPD to feel closer to her dead son.
“I don’t want him to be rewarded even one penny for killing my son and being in prison for the crime that he committed,” Tatyana Timoshenko, who moved to the United States with her husband and son from the Russian republic of Balarus when he was 9, told The Post. “I had only one child. I used to live for him and he was stolen from me.”
Timoshenko, 59, and her husband Leonid, are suing Woods in Richmond County Surpreme Court to stop the payment.
Russel Timoshenko survived for five days in the hospital after he was shot — and his mother remembers how she screamed when he died.
The mom, who still wears a necklace that holds a tiny silver badge with her son’s name on it, spent months with her school bus driver husband sitting in a chair by their son’s grave at the Moravian Cemetery in Staten Island.
Today, that’s where they can be found on holidays, including Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.
“This is my life,” she said, as tears fell from her eyes. “On the holidays, we visit his grave because he can’t come visit us.”
Simonsen was killed in a hail of bullets fired by other cops after a robber drew a fake pistol during a T-Mobile store robbery in South Richmond Hill, Queens, in February 2019.
His imprisoned killers, Jagger Freeman and Christopher Ransom, are set to receive $243,900 and $123,600, respectively.
Ransom, who was wielding the prop and wearing a ski mask when he forced employees to open a safe in the back of the store, pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter and robbery in 2021. He was sentenced to 33 years in prison.
Jagger Freeman, who orchestrated the robbery, was found guilty in 2022 of murder in the second degree, robbery, assault and grand larceny. He was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison.
They were among 4,000 pretrial detainees who sued the city as part of a class-action suit, claiming that they were placed in solitary confinement in cells at Rikers Island for up to 23 hours a day.
Simonson’s widow, Leanne, said she was “appalled” to learn of the planned payments.
“I couldn’t believe that they were getting rewarded for being criminals. It’s like the state is taking sides with the criminals and us victims are just hung out to dry,” she said.
Lawyer James Moschella, who represents the Detectives Endowment Association, filed suit for both police officer families.
“These two cases are the perfect examples of the just and appropriate use of the NYC Executive Law, the so-called Son of Sam law,” said Moschella, of Karasyk Moschella in Manhattan. “It will ensure that these defendants, all of whom are responsible for the murder of two brave NYC police detectives will not profit from their incarceration.”
Moschella filed a lawsuit in Suffolk County Supreme Court, where Simonsen’s widow lives, to stop her husband’s killers from getting the money. He filed the suit for the Timoshenko family in Richmond County Supreme Court.
Detectives Endowment President Scott Munro said the payments could erode public safety.
“Pamper cop killers, destroy public safety,” he said. “It’s that simple.”
Lawyers for the inmates in their civil cases didn’t return calls seeking comment.
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