Settlements

During a July 2020 search for armed suspects, officers detained Contreraz at Wright Park even though he did not fully match the suspect description. Contreraz alleged that while he was seated and conversing with officers, Officer Christopher Bain suddenly pulled him backwards by his handcuffs, slamming his head onto a table behind him. The officers released Contreraz after they realized he was not one of the suspects. As of April 2024, Bain remained on the force.

The lawsuit alleged that the Boulder Police Department lacked policies to ensure accessible communication with people with disabilities. In May 2022, officers allegedly ignored Montoya’s requests for an American Sign Language interpreter, and they removed Montoya’s children after incorrectly determining that she lacked the resources to care for them. The officers took the children to Montoya’s sister-in-law, and the children were kept from Montoya for two months. As part of the settlement, Boulder committed to implementing new policies to ensure effective, accessible communication with people with disabilities.

In violation of the Chicago Police Department’s “no-chase” policy for minor traffic offenses, police initiated the chase after a driver ran a stop sign. Officer Jhonathan Perez, who remained on active duty as of March 2024, pursued the fleeing vehicle at high speeds before slowing down immediately before the crash occurred. The crash left Jones, who was a passenger in the fleeing vehicle, unable to walk, talk, or care for himself. Attorneys for Jones argued that the Police Department’s failure to follow policy caused irreparable harm, and the settlement, including $20 million from the City and $25 million from its insurer, would help cover his lifelong care.

Officer Robert Slechter claimed that McIntosh reached for a gun before Slechter shot McIntosh three times. Police found a loaded firearm nearby, though it bore no usable fingerprints. McIntosh’s mother, Cynthia Lane, filed a civil rights lawsuit in 2015 alleging a police cover-up, with officers altering their accounts after viewing surveillance video that contradicted their initial statements. While two oversight agencies cleared Slechter, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability recommended the termination of another officer, Saharat Sampim, due to inconsistencies in his testimony. However, Sampim retired before facing discipline.

Rodriguez was exonerated in 2018 after new evidence revealed that Guevara had coerced a witness to falsely identify him. Rodriguez is among the forty-one individuals who were convicted based on evidence gathered by Guevara and later exonerated. The settlement brought Chicago’s total payouts in cases related to Guevara’s conduct to $62.5 million. Guevara, who retired from the Chicago Police Department in 2005, continued to receive public pensions and had not been criminally charged as of March 2024.

Peets was wrongfully convicted of a 1996 shooting after New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers allegedly fabricated a story about his involvement, withheld exculpatory information about an alternative suspect, and destroyed key biological evidence. At the crime scene, one victim identified another individual as the shooter, but the NYPD released that person without further questioning and never disclosed this information to lawyers representing Peets. Officers also failed to send a bloody bullet fragment to the laboratory for testing, and then the NYPD lost the fragment. Officers Claude Staten and William Fullam also failed to disclose their prior knowledge of Peets, which may have contributed to their misidentification of Peets as the shooter. His conviction was vacated in 2022 after DNA testing on a hat believed to belong to the shooter excluded him as a match. The settlement highlighted ongoing concerns about police misconduct and the importance of discovery laws in preventing future injustices.

The person, whose name was redacted from the complaint, alleged that a police officer deployed a Taser on him “for no reason” as he was following police orders to raise his hands during an arrest in May 2022. The payment resolved the complaint before the person filed any lawsuit.

Espinoza filed the lawsuit against former Las Animas Sheriff's Lieutenant Henry Trujillo, former Deputy Mikhail Noel, Undersheriff Rey Santistevan, Sheriff Derek Navarette, the Las Animas County Sheriff’s Office, and the Las Animas County Board of County Commissioners. In November 2022, Espinoza was driving a separate vehicle when officers pulled over his son. Espinoza alleged that after he stopped his own vehicle and was trying to comply with the deputies’ instructions, Noel and Trujillo detained and assaulted him without justification in front of his son, including stunning Espinoza thirty-five times with a Taser. The Sheriff’s Office fired Noel and Trujillo in September 2023 over their roles in the incident.

In August 2020, Aurora Police Department officers held Gilliam at gunpoint and handcuffed her because they mistakenly believed that she was driving a stolen vehicle, even though Gilliam was with her young daughter, sister, and two nieces. Former Police Chief Vanessa Wilson apologized to the family, and attorney David Lane filed a lawsuit on behalf of Gilliam and her family.

The crash occurred when Officer Tracy D. Heusinkveld, who was attempting to stop a different driver without activating her emergency lights or sirens, accelerated to sixty-eight miles per hour in a forty-miles-per-hour zone and struck Manderson Davis’s vehicle as she turned left at an intersection on a green light. Manderson Davis died at the hospital hours later from her injuries. The City did not admit wrongdoing but agreed to the settlement to avoid the uncertainty and cost of trial. The settlement was divided among attorney fees, escrow, and Manderson Davis’s two daughters. Heusinkveld retired in 2019.

DuBoise was sentenced to death but always maintained his innocence. His conviction relied heavily on a flawed bite-mark analysis and a jailhouse informant whose testimony was later revealed to be fabricated. After DuBoise was denied post-conviction DNA testing for years, The Innocence Project took on his case and uncovered DNA evidence that ultimately proved his innocence. He was released in 2020 and fully exonerated. DuBoise then filed a lawsuit against the City of Tampa, several police officers, and a forensic odontologist, leading to the $14 million settlement approved in February 2024. While DuBoise expressed gratitude, he emphasized that no amount of compensation could restore the decades lost to wrongful incarceration.

The shooting, captured on surveillance footage, occurred when officers in an unmarked vehicle approached Adams in a parking lot. Police claimed that Adams was armed and failed to comply with verbal commands before running toward parked cars. Attorneys for the family argued that Adams posed no threat, but police shot Adams six times in the back, killing him. While the City did not admit wrongdoing, it cited the financial and legal risks of going to trial as the basis for the settlement. Following the settlement, the family vowed to pursue criminal charges against the officers.

The federal lawsuit Jared Goyette et al. v. City of Minneapolis et al. alleged widespread violations of journalists’ First Amendment rights by the Minneapolis Police Department and other law enforcement agencies. The journalists, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota and pro bono attorneys, reported that officers pepper-sprayed and tear-gassed them, shot them with foam bullets, and arrested them without cause, even though the journalists had identified themselves as members of the press. The settlement was divided between eight journalists and the Communications Workers of America. Although the City did not admit wrongdoing, the journalists said they considered the case to be a landmark moment for press freedom. This settlement was in addition to a separate $825,000 settlement reached with the Minnesota State Patrol.

The lawsuit, filed in 2022, alleged that officers racially profiled Johnson, held him at gunpoint, threw him to the ground, and handcuffed him despite no evidence linking him to any crime. The settlement included policy reforms, including annual in-person officer training on implicit bias and de-escalation, the hiring of a consultant to review the racial profiling policy, and public reporting of arrest and stop data by race. Two of the officers named in the suit remained with the Arlington Police as of early 2024, while a third left in 2022.

Fifty protesters and journalists filed a lawsuit against the City of Seattle and the Seattle Police Department for excessive force during BLM protests in summer 2020, and the King County Superior Court of Washington approved a $10 million monetary payment to the plaintiffs. The protesters represented in this case experienced a range of debilitating injuries, including cardiac arrest, a seizure and coma, a partially blown-off finger, permanent hearing loss, broken bones, concussions, and wounds. The plaintiffs also asked the City for non-monetary provisions, such as ordering the City to make a full accounting of the changes that have occurred because of the protests. In a related development, the Seattle Office of Inspector General’s final report on the summer 2020 protests put forth twenty-two recommendations for the Seattle Police Department to improve communication with media and legal observers, improve crowd management, increase police accountability, and more. 

The lawsuit stemmed from an incident where Strong was later convicted of assaulting a police officer.

On February 9, 2019, the assistant manager of a Taco Bell called the police to report a Mercedes stopped in the drive-thru. The responding officers reported that McCoy had a gun on his lap in his car. They tried to retrieve the gun “without disturbing him” but learned that the car door was locked. The officers then parked cars in front and behind the Mercedes to pin McCoy in. McCoy woke up when the second car pulled up, and the police asked him to put his hands up. The police reported that McCoy reached for his gun, and six officers fired fifty-five rounds of bullets at McCoy in 3.5 seconds. Thirty-eight shots hit McCoy, and one-third of them were fatal chest wounds.

The lawsuit, filed in 2021, accused a Providence Police Department officer of pursuing Gonsalves by car and ordering others to “box [Gonsalves] in.” The lawsuit asserted that police “used excessive and unsafe force” to stop Gonsalves, which resulted in the crash that left Gonsalves with a traumatic brain injury and unable to walk.

Feldmann was not participating in the protest and was walking back to his car after meeting with a friend when an officer in a passing truck shot him with the pepper ball, according to a lawsuit filed in January 2022. Doctors determined in 2020 that his eye was damaged beyond repair and would eventually need to be removed, according to the lawsuit. Feldmann’s attorney identified Denver Police Officer Diego Archuleta as the officer who shot Feldmann, although a Denver Police Department investigation into who among the officers in the truck fired the pepper ball was inconclusive. Archuleta was disciplined for other actions taken during the 2020 protests and resigned in 2022 after pleading guilty to a felony charge of attempted strangulation.

Maynard, a twenty-four-year-old off-duty detention officer, was killed when a carjacker fleeing from police struck her vehicle during a high-speed chase. Maynard’s estate sued the City, alleging gross negligence for continuing the pursuit despite the risks to the public. The chase involved officers following an armed suspect, who ran fourteen red lights and numerous stop signs while driving at high speeds through downtown Durham. Attorneys for the estate argued that police showed reckless disregard for public safety, citing a recording where one officer expressed hope that the suspect would crash. The City initially moved for summary judgment, asserting governmental immunity, but a judge denied the motion. The parties settled the case shortly after Court of Appeals mediation, with the City admitting no liability. The primary beneficiary of the settlement is Maynard’s young daughter.

In September 2022, an unmarked police vehicle followed Jackson as he drove home, and officers confronted him in his driveway over an expired vehicle registration. Jackson informed the officers that he had just undergone prostate surgery and presented a doctor’s note, but the officers forcefully detained him. The lawsuit claimed that officers kneed him in the groin multiple times, twisted his arm, and left him with bruised wrists from tight handcuffs. Jackson later required emergency medical treatment after urinating blood for two days. While the City did not admit liability, Jackson’s attorney said the payment represented acknowledgment of the harm done and urged reform to prevent such mistreatment by the police.

Police took James, who reportedly had “an altered mental status,” into custody twice in one day before Officer Robert Sasek allegedly drove her to the Neal Road Recycling and Waste Facility around midnight and left her there without shoes, water, or a phone. While walking along the road in the dark, she was struck by a passing vehicle and suffered life-threatening internal injuries. The civil rights lawsuit accused the City and officers of a “state-created danger” and deliberate indifference. James spent over a month in the hospital, underwent multiple surgeries, and will likely require lifelong medical care, including the use of a colostomy bag. The suit described the officer’s decision to abandon James as a “heartless” act that “would warrant criminal charges if they had abandoned a dog or cat.”

In February 2019, officers found Wells naked in the street. Officers tased and apprehended Wells, and he later died. His family sued the Police Department for wrongful death and excessive force.

On October 4, 2021, Craig called 911 for help, stating his wife was threatening him with a knife. When officers entered the home, Craig’s son told them that his mother had the knife. Although Officer Alberto Covarrubias and his partner had allegedly been informed at least four times that Craig was the victim of domestic violence, Covarrubias shot Craig twice and did not attempt to subdue the wife.

In November 2023, a judge approved a $5 million settlement against Funderburg and the City of Detroit, paid to Woodards’ daughter, Melissa Connelly. Prior to the incident, Funderburg had a poor driving record: she had lost her license twice and also hit someone else when she ran a red light.