Settlements

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.

Boyd was homeless and struggling with mental illness when he was surrounded by armed officers and fatally shot. The two former officers involved, Dominique Perez and Keith Sandy, were subsequently charged with second-degree murder, but their case ended in a mistrial. Jones requested his brother's case records but DPS only turned over some of the records and said they were exempt from such a disclosure due to the investigation being ongoing. The New Mexico Supreme Court found that DPS had violated the state Inspection of Public Records Act and that Jones was entitled to the attorney fees required to battle the issue all the way to the Supreme Court.

Officer Michael O’Sullivan arrested Smith due to his proximity to a gun on the ground. Smith was subsequently charged with illegal possession of a handgun and other firearm offenses. O’Sullivan wrote a false statement saying that he saw Smith throw the gun before fleeing the scene. O’Sullivan repeated this testimony at trial, causing Smith to be convicted.  O’Sullivan was later convicted of perjury, sentenced to 15 months in prison, and then eventually resigned from the police department on December 1, 2020. Smith will receive $100,000 from the city.

One of the men, Ian Andrew Bowman, who received $75,000, said in his lawsuit that officers beat, kicked, choked, clubbed, and stomped on him without legal justification. The second man, Jonathan Ballew, a freelance journalist whose claim was settled for $40,000, alleged that he was “assaulted with a chemical agent.”

Campos filed the employment claim through his police union. Records will now reflect that he resigned from his position, per the terms of the settlement agreement.

Shubert’s lawsuit claimed that the Glastonbury Police Department discriminated against Shubert on the basis of sex when the Department promoted a male lieutenant instead of her despite the fact that Shubert scored the highest on a hiring exam and had more experience.

The case arose out of an incident where SWAT officers threw a flash-bang grenade into Burt’s car in violation of police department policy on the use of these devices. Officers did not announce themselves prior to encountering Burt and did not file a search warrant for Burt’s car. Burt had a friend in the vehicle who was wanted in connection with a nonviolent drug charge. Police did not find anything illegal in the car. Burt suffered severe burns when the flash-bang grenade exploded.

During the encounter, Wright reached for his colostomy bag when police officers fired non-lethal weapons at him. Prior news investigations into the Euclid police department revealed that 20 percent of Euclid officers accounted for 80 percent of use of force incidents.

After receiving a suspension, officers alleged that Howard refused to leave the school premises. Howard was also charged with misdemeanor and felony offenses, but those charges were dropped by the state’s attorney’s office a week after the incident.

An officer with the San Luis Obispo Police Department fired at the dog, claiming it was charging him, but this version of events was disputed by Regalia and Manford. The San Luis Obispo Police Department has implemented officer training on how to handle dog encounters.

Reiman, the brother of Carteret’s mayor, Mayor Dan Reiman, was acquitted of criminal charges in Superior Court. The federal civil rights lawsuit contended that many officers who witnessed the incident failed to intervene because they feared retribution from the Mayor. Officer Reiman has faced numerous complaints of excessive force in the past.

The Aurora Police Department has had issues concerning police excessive use of force for years; the Department rose to infamy when it was involved with the death of Elijah McClain in 2019.

Taylor was killed by plainclothes police officers when they fired upon him outside his home. The officers, Michael Spaulding and Scott Miller, claimed they believed their lives to be in danger when they encountered Taylor, who they tried to arrest for unlawful possession of a handgun. Evidence in the case raised doubt about the officers’ claims that Taylor was armed.

Ryan Cordova was beaten by a police officer while handcuffed to a rail in the holding cell of the county jail in 2019. He will receive $335,000 to settle his lawsuit.

Jessica Guttman failed to immediately identify herself to a police officer, who then was taken to the ground and handcuffed. Due to a preexisting disability, Guttman started to suffer from seizures during the police encounter. Police waited more than 30 minutes to release Guttman so that she could receive medical attention. Guttman will receive $300,000.

Ryan Cordova was beaten by a police officer while handcuffed to a rail in the holding cell of the county jail in 2019. He will receive $335,000 to settle his lawsuit.

Jessica Guttman failed to immediately identify herself to a police officer, who then was taken to the ground and handcuffed. Due to a preexisting disability, Guttman started to suffer from seizures during the police encounter. Police waited more than 30 minutes to release Guttman so that she could receive medical attention. Guttman will receive $300,000.

Officer Clinton Toles, who was off duty at the time, assaulted McDonough at a bar in 2017. Toles identified himself as a police officer to McDonough. Two city officials who approved the settlement noted publicly that similarly situated settlements had done little to curb police misconduct in Minneapolis over the years and that settlement may have come to be viewed by officials as the cost of doing business.

Kolb’s son, who called 911 to get his father medical attention, did not claim his father presented as any clear danger to dispatchers, and that he was simply experiencing a mental health crisis that Kolb has regularly experienced before. Honeycutt claimed he shot Kolb because he feared for his life when Kolb stabbed him with a sharp object, but Kolb’s son testified he never saw his father attack Honeycutt and the deputy’s vest showed no signs of stabbing.

Ryan Whitaker was shot and killed by Phoenix police officers in May 2020, when officers were called to the scene involving a domestic dispute. Whitaker was holding a gun in his hand when he opened the door. Officers perceived Whitaker to be an eminent danger and shot him, although he did not fire his gun and appeared to be kneeling and putting his hands up, as seen through body worn cameras.

The officer involved in this incident was off duty and pursued Chancellor for speeding.