Two former troopers have won a multimillion-dollar racial discrimination lawsuit against the state police and a former superintendent.  

Noel Nelson and Seamus Lyons were awarded $3.25 million by a federal jury in White Plains last week. 

They found the men were improperly and falsely accused by former Superintendent Joseph D’Amico of taking drugs from an evidence crime lab in Hawthorne in 2010. 

High profile civil rights attorney Michael Sussman represented the men and says Nelson, who is African American, was racially targeted and that both were forced to retire and resign. 

“They went after an African American senior investigator, Mr. Nelson, and Mr. Lyons – a white man who supported him,” said Sussman.  “They essentially threw them both out of the state police after a combined 41 years of service.” 

Sussman says his clients were accused, instead of two Caucasian evidence and drug custodians, who were previously found responsible for missing and stolen narcotics. 

A state police representative declined to comment on the outcome of the lawsuit.