Organized Crime

Family of Mafia Cops victim gets $5 million settlement in New York lawsuit

Associated Press
Published | Updated

FILE- In this March 22, 2006, file photo, former New York City police detective Louis Eppolito, right, exits Brooklyn federal court with his wife Fran in New York. Lawyers for the family of Israel Greenwald announced the settlement on Thursday, July 30, 2015, in one of the most notorious police corruption cases in city history. The family sued the city in 2006 after Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa were arrested in Las Vegas, where they had retired, and convicted of murder and other crimes. (AP Photo/ Louis Lanzano, File) (The Associated Press)

FILE- In this March 13, 2006 file photo, former New York City police detective Stephen Caracappa enters Brooklyn federal court in New York. Lawyers for the family of Israel Greenwald announced the settlement on Thursday, July 30, 2015, in one of the most notorious police corruption cases in city history. The family sued the city in 2006 after Louis Eppolito and Caracappa were arrested in Las Vegas, where they had retired, and convicted of murder and other crimes. (AP Photo/ Louis Lanzano, File) (The Associated Press)

The family of a diamond dealer killed by a pair of New York Police Department detectives working as mob hit men has gotten a $5 million settlement in a wrongful-death lawsuit.

Lawyers for the family of Israel Greenwald announced the settlement Thursday. New York City's law department confirmed the deal.

The family sued in 2006 after Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa were convicted in the so-called Mafia Cops case.

Authorities accused the pair in the killings of eight people between 1986 and 1990 in exchange for cash from an organized crime family.

Greenwald was gunned down in 1986 after being pulled over by Eppolito and Caracappa. Prosecutors say the mob believed he was cooperating with the FBI.

Eppolito and Caracappa are serving life sentences. A defense attorney said their convictions were "not justice."