Settlements

In 2020, Antonio Arnelo Smith was slammed to the ground by a police officer who alleged that he wrongly thought Smith had an outstanding arrest warrant. In addition to the financial settlement, the city shared that they would create a civilian review board to oversee local police and make policy recommendations. The creation of a citizen panel was Smith’s primary priority in the lawsuit. Body camera footage captured how the police officer pinned Smith’s hands behind his back and proceeded to slam him into the ground, face-first.

The lawsuit cast doubt on police testimony. Cameron Johnson was shot by a police officer who had a brief conversation with Johnson while he was in his vehicle and then started firing. Witnesses were right behind Johnson’s vehicle and confirmed that the officer shot Johnson multiple times and that the submitted police testimony of the situation was incorrect.

On March 2, 2018, Martin got into a verbal altercation with a security guard at Eastridge Mall which led to the guard calling the police. Martin and his cousin were approached by SJPD officer Alexandre Ribeiro who was in his patrol SUV. Court records say the officer drove off the road over a curb onto the jogging trail Martin was on with his cousin. When Martin moved out of the vehicle’s way, Officer Ribeiro swerved to hit the plaintiff and then backed over his body. Martin suffered pelvis fractures, a broken ankle, nerve damage and other lasting injuries.

Baton Rouge officers strip searched and groped two people, including the 16-year-old, on a public street when conducting a “frisk” during a traffic stop. A federal judge said the officers “demonstrated a serious and wanton disregard” for constitutional rights. During a news conference about the settlement, the police chief said department policies were violated during the stop, including conduct unbecoming of an officer, a violation of BRPD's body-worn camera policy, and another violation regarding warrantless searches.

Abby Simon brought a suit against the city and Chief Mark Dalsing in 2019. Simon sued on grounds of gender discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. Additionally, Simon expressed in the lawsuit that she was passed over in 2016 and 2017 for promotion to captain although she had better test and interview scores than the men who were promoted. 

The shooting was captured by Coy, via his body camera. However, his body camera footage does not have sound since he was on a non-emergency call. Coy has a history of complaints. Hill was visiting a family friend when he was shot while Coy was responding to a neighbor’s non-emergency complaint about someone stopping and starting a car outside.

The cases settled involved Tremel Stone, who was shot by a police officer when fleeing arrest in 2010, Rodriguez Howard, who was injured in a car crash with a police vehicle in 2018, Sabriena Chiles, who was unlawfully arrested and imprisoned in 2016, and Raymond Walker, who was pulled over by an officer in 2018 for crossing a double yellow line without signaling. These settlements prompted a push for a civilian review board to investigate incidents of police misconduct.

More than 100 protestors alleged that police officers used excessive force such as chemical irritants, batons, and grenades when handling demonstrators.

Under the settlement agreement in this excessive force case, the New York City Police Department also agreed to stop the use of the high-frequency “deterrent” or “alert” tone on its long-range acoustic devices, which the department has used in the past primarily to communicate with large crowds.

Sergeant Lucas Jones was fired in June 2020 for “violating department policy,” after shooting and paralyzing Jerime Mitchell. Jones was not indicted by a grand jury, but Mitchell filed a civil suit against him and the City of Cedar Rapids. The civil suit alleged Jones engaged in deceptive police practices and misconduct, such as violating police policies and procedures and turning off his recording equipment to hide his violations of police department policies.

The lawsuit was filed in May 2020 and claims that Cook violated plaintiffs’ 14^th Amendment right to due process by publicly releasing their personal information. The photos contained plaintiffs’ full names, birth dates, and home addresses. Further, the lawsuit alleges that since only photos of non-White people were uploaded, there was a violation of plaintiffs’ right to Equal Protection. However, White people have committed criminal acts in Evanston yet were not subject to their personal information being released. Therefore, the complaint argues “[B]y treating minority civilians and Caucasian civilians in such a different manner, Defendant Cook violated Plaintiffs’ right under the Fourteenth Amendment to Equal Protection.”

The city’s payouts include settlements of cases brought by private persons and cases brought by police officers against the Los Angeles Police Department. These payouts are connected to a longer history of the city paying over $245 million to remedy legal claims against the police department over the past 5.5 years.

The payout is another act in a series of police brutality payouts by Minneapolis: it was only two years ago when the city paid out $20 million to the family of Justine Ruszczyk, a woman killed by then-police officer Mohamed Noor.

Millville Police Officer, Albert Chard Jr., testified that he was dragged by David Carpenter’s pick-up truck. Chard’s testimony led to a grand jury indicting Carpenter for aggravated assault on a police officer and eluding a police officer. A surveillance camera nearby showed that Chard “was not dragged across the street and that Carpenter did absolutely nothing to support his being indicted by the grand jury.” Carpenter was emotionally distressed over the incident, rarely leaving his house due to being ashamed. He filed suit in 2018. The settlement was described as a “compromise” made by the city’s insurer “for the sole purpose of terminating the litigation.”

Jorge Rivera and his mother Jennifer Rivera sued the City and County of Honolulu, officer Kirk Uemura, and others in federal court. The lawsuit alleged that Uemura’s son and Rivera got into a fight over a girl. The following day, Uemura arrested Rivera after following his school bus to a nearby high school. He summoned other officers to take Rivera to the Kailua police station where the young boy was detained in handcuffs. The case highlighted the lack of policy in the Honolulu Police Department to prohibit officers from involving themselves in cases where they have a conflict of interest. A policy has since been recommended by the Honolulu Police Commission.

On February 9, 2017, Portland police officer Andrew Hearst, shot Hayes three times with an AR-15 rifle from 10 feet away. Hayes was on his knees with hands in the air. Police had cornered Hayes in a driveway in Northeast Portland, following reports of armed carjackings in the area. Hayes was not armed when Hearst killed him. A month later, Hearst was acquitted by a grand jury.

Harold Cox filed suit, claiming that officer Michael Lamm body slammed him to the ground on September 7, 2018, and shattered his hip when trying to defuse an altercation between him and two women. Cox’s injuries required medical attention. Over a year and a half after the incident occurred, Cox was served an arrest warrant when Lamm falsely stated that Cox assaulted one of the women by hitting her with a homemade doorstop. The District Attorney’s Office eventually dismissed the charges.

Jubal Chaplin and Caleb Beechem sued the city and several officers in January 2020. They claimed that Springfield law enforcement officers unlawfully arrested them, detained them, and used excessive force. Beechem’s injuries included a broken wrist and “multiple deep bruises to his head;” Beechem’s injuries also required 12 stiches to his lip.

Sowl filed a lawsuit against the City of Loveland, the Loveland Police Department, and Loveland police officers Paul Ashe and Benjamin DeLima, Det. Clint Schnorr and Sgt. Brian Bartnes. In the lawsuit, Sowl claimed that the officers violated Sowl's constitutional rights when they arrested him for refusing to answer questions as a witness about a motorcycle crash outside of a Loveland bar in September 2019. Sowl was arrested by Officer Ashe and claimed that he needed shoulder surgery following the incident. The arrest was captured on body-worn camera footage.

The city paid Cisneros and her attorneys $57,900. Cisneros suffered an eye injury when a police officer fired a projectile at her while she and her partner were walking home after a demonstration.

The settlement does not include an admission of guilt on the part of the city or Ortiz. Ortiz has been named in several police misconduct complaints in the past. In fact, “over his 17 years on the job — including eight as the union president of the Fraternal Order of Police in South Florida — 49 people have complained about him to Internal Affairs as he amassed 19 official use-of-force incidents, $600,000 in lawsuit settlements.”

Court documents showed that Bey and his friends, who are all Black, were followed by undercover Livonia officers Andrew McKinley, Eric Eisenbeis, and Megan McAteer, while they were traveling in a minivan to a grocery store on March 16, 2013. Officer McKinley stated that he wanted to follow the minivan based on “a hunch.” The officers allegedly did not know that Bey and his friends were Black at the time of the investigation.

Golatte will be compensated by the city by paying him $525,000 and forgiving approximately $45,000 in debt he owes to the city.

In February 2018, the Chicago Police Board took a vote to suspend Gaeta and Matheos without pay for a year each. The then-Superintendent Eddie Johnson and the Independent Police Review Authority recommended that both officers be fired. The two officers were reinstated in July 2018 and were re-trained. Both officers remain on the force.

Although the misconduct was settled quickly, the officers involved in the incident, Blake Shimanek and Ankit Tomer, remain employed by the Keller Police Department. Puente will receive $200,000, per the settlement agreement.

An internal Albany Police Department report about the case revealed the misconduct of the officers involved, but also general mismanagement in the department. The Albany County District Attorney’s office dropped the charges against Sanchez and Gorostiza after one of the officers involved, Luke Deer, was charged with felony assault and official misconduct. Deer was suspended from the department. The lawsuit of a third man, Lee Childs, is awaiting adjudication.