Motorcyclist injured after rear-end crash with Minneapolis police sues city

A motorcyclist is suing the city of Minneapolis for injuries sustained when a squad car rear-ended him while responding to an unrelated call at high speeds in the summer of 2020.

"The fact that I'm not crippled or dead is a miracle," said Nicholas Vezzetti in a phone interview Wednesday. "But because I was rear-ended by a police officer, and not a private citizen or a business, I am now forced to go through this litigation process and have over six figures in medical bills over my head."

Vezzetti, a 35-year-old from south Minneapolis who works for a motorcycle manufacturer, recently filed the lawsuit in Hennepin County District Court accusing two former MPD officers of being negligent, careless and unlawful in the crash that sent him flying off his bike, resulting in serious injuries. The officers were traveling at high speeds in response to an armed suspect, according to the lawsuit.

Vezzetti's attorney Jacob Jagdfeld said in an interview that it's unclear how fast the squad car was going at the time of the crash. It was a month after the police murder of George Floyd and he said MPD was in combat mode.

"Unfortunately, Mr. Vezzetti was a victim of that combat mode," Jagdfeld said. "He was driving lawfully and got run over from behind from a squad car."

Jagdfeld said the city informed him that it intends to file a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on the basis of qualified immunity, which shields officers from being sued if they are acting reasonably within the duties of their jobs.

Minneapolis rejected a settlement demand last September, Jagdfeld added, which ultimately led to filing the lawsuit last week. The case was assigned to a judge on Friday.

According to the lawsuit:

Vezzetti was riding his motorcycle eastbound on the parkway toward Lake Nokomis near 11th Avenue S. at 11:44 p.m. on June 19, 2020. The squad car driven by now ex-MPD officer Graham Plys was "racing through South Minneapolis at high speeds on the way to an alleged emergency call involving an armed suspect who was located at the intersection of 52nd and 28th Avenue."

Plys turned onto the parkway and accelerated eastbound with his partner David Robins, who also is no longer with MPD. They are heard on video discussing the suspect dropping the weapon and discussing whether they should get out a firearm.

Vezzetti was initiating a left-hand turn to exit the parkway and get out of the way of the squad car when he was rammed. Squad dash cam video shows the motorcycle's head and tail lights were clearly illuminated.

His injuries — left leg and vertebrae fractures, disc herniation, persistent lumbar pain, road rash and lacerations — were caused by "the negligent failure of Officers Plys and Robins."

In an interview, Vezzetti said that he's an experienced motorcyclist who has never had a wreck like this. He got his first bike in 2009 and has traveled across the U.S. and even South America after college for a six-month ride with friends.

Now he wakes up in the middle of the night from intense back pain. The former football player at Holy Angels and later Michigan Tech University said he's come to accept what he calls his "lifetime injury."

He was hospitalized for four days during the pandemic, that carried a cost of $80,000, followed by bills for physical therapy, shin surgery, and MRIs.