Location | Year | Description | Outcome |
---|---|---|---|
Albuquerque, New Mexico | 2021 |
The State of New Mexico has agreed to pay $218,000 to cover legal fees for Andrew Jones, who sued the Department of Public Safety (DPS) over records related to the death of his brother. Jones’ brother, James Boyd, was fatally shot by Albuquerque police in 2014. 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. |
Compensation
$218,000.00 |
Baltimore, Maryland | 2021 |
The City of Baltimore settled a lawsuit with Yusef Smith, who served jail time because of an officer’s false testimony. 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. |
Compensation
$100,000.00 |
Chicago, Illinois | 2021 |
In January 2021, the City of Chicago paid two Chicago men a settlement totaling $115,000 for being subjected to excessive force by Chicago law enforcement officers during the George Floyd protests. 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.” |
Compensation
$115,000.00 |
Wapato, Washington | 2021 |
Former Wapato police chief, Michael Campos, will receive $125,000 to settle an employment claim he filed against the City of Wapato. Campos was previously fired for attempting to intimidate witnesses, lying under oath, and participating in investigations where he had a clear conflict of interest. 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. |
Compensation
$125,000.00 |
Glastonbury, Connecticut | 2020 |
Former police sergeant Kristin Shubert will receive an undisclosed sum of money to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit. 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. |
Compensation
Undisclosed |
Minneapolis, Minnesota | 2020 |
The City of Minneapolis settled a case brought by Jerrod Burt for $170,000. 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. |
Compensation
$170,000.00 |
Euclid, Ohio | 2020 |
Lamar Wright, a Black man living in Euclid, Ohio, will drop his lawsuit against the City of Euclid after the city agreed to pay Wright $475,000. The lawsuit concerned a 2016 police encounter Wright experienced, where police tased and pepper sprayed Wright at point blank range. 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. |
Compensation
$475,000.00 |
Chicago, Illinois | 2020 |
Dnigma Howard, a 16-year-old Black female special needs student at Marshall High School, will receive $300,000 to settle a lawsuit concerning excessive police force at a Chicago Public School. In January 2019, Howard was tased and wrestled down a flight of stairs by school resource officers. 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. |
Compensation
$300,000.00 |
San Luis Obispo, California | 2020 |
Nick Regalia and Riley Manford received $70,000 in compensation from the City of San Luis Obispo after officers shot their dog in 2019. 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. |
Compensation
$70,000.00 |
Carteret, New Jersey | 2020 |
Monte Stewart will receive $595,000 to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit. Stewart, who was 16 at the time, was “savagely beaten” by Carteret Police Officer Joseph Reiman during a 2017 arrest. 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. |
Compensation
$595,000.00 |
Aurora, Colorado | 2020 |
The Aurora Police Department paid Jamie Albert Torres Soto $285,000 to settle a lawsuit that Torres Soto filed in 2018. In November 2016, Aurora officers forced Torres Soto out of his garage, detained him, and then slammed him to the ground. The officers would later try to cover up the misconduct by charging Torres Soto with resisting arrest and failure to follow a lawful order, but Torres Soto was later acquitted of all charges. 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. |
Compensation
$285,000.00 |
Seattle, Washington | 2020 |
The City of Seattle settled a lawsuit by the family of Che Taylor for $1.5 million. The case arose from a fatal shooting by two police officers in 2016. 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. |
Compensation
$1,500,000.00 |
Santa Fe County, New Mexico | 2020 |
New Mexico state police will settle two police brutality lawsuits for $635,000. 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. |
Compensation
$635,000.00 |
Santa Fe County, New Mexico | 2020 |
New Mexico state police will settle two police brutality lawsuits for $635,000. 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. |
Compensation
$635,000.00 |
Minneapolis, Minnesota | 2020 |
The City of Minneapolis agreed to pay a nearly $1 million dollar settlement to Lucas McDonough, a man who suffered a traumatic brain injury from an off-duty officer. 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. |
Compensation
$1,000,000.00 |
Placer County, California | 2020 |
Samuel Kolb was experiencing a mental health crisis when Placer County Deputy Curtis Honeycutt shot him, shattering one of his vertebrae. Kolb was paralyzed from the waist down. Placer County agreed to settle the case for $10 million. 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. |
Compensation
$10,000,000.00 |
Phoenix, Arizona | 2020 |
The City of Phoenix settled a lawsuit by the family of Ryan Whitaker for $3 million. The lawsuit was based on a deadly police shooting. 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. |
Compensation
$3,000,000.00 |
Fort Collins, Colorado | 2020 |
Kimberly Chancellor sued the city alleging excessive force after she was pinned to the ground by a Fort Collins police officer in 2017. The city settled the lawsuit in 2020 for $125,000. The officer involved in this incident was off duty and pursued Chancellor for speeding. |
Compensation
$125,000.00 |
Tempe, Arizona | 2020 |
The City of Tempe settled a lawsuit with Trevonyae Cumpian for $300,000, stemming from an aggressive police encounter. Cumpian, a Black hotel worker, was threatened and held by gunpoint by officer Ronald Kerzaya for several minutes. Officer Kerzaya was responding to a call about an armed suspect at the hotel where Cumpian worked. The hotel manager told Kerzaya that the suspect was White. Kerzaya, however, held Cumpian by gun point for several minutes until the hotel manager could confirm that Cumpian was not the suspect. |
Compensation
$300,000.00 |
Wildwood, New Jersey | 2020 |
The City of Wildwood has agreed to pay $325,000 to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit concerning an aggressive police encounter with Emily Weinman. In a now viral video, police officers can be seen confronting Weinman and administering a breathalyzer test over an unopened alcoholic beverage. As Weinman tells the officers she had not been drinking and begins to walk away, an officer can be heard saying, “Al[l ]right, you are about to get dropped.” According to the lawsuit, Weinman says that the officers were “twisting her arms, pulling her hair and choking her by firmly pressing a forearm against her throat that hindered her breathing.” The officers, Thomas Canon and Robert Jordan, were not regular police officers, but instead class II officers that are seasonal positions the Jersey Shore towns regularly employ during the busy summer seasons. |
Compensation
$325,000.00 |
Worthington, Minnesota | 2020 |
The City of Worthington settled an excessive force case brought by Kelvin Rodriguez for $590,000. Worthington Police Officers Mark Riley and Evan Eggers seriously injured Rodriguez during an arrest in January 2019 after Rodriguez had surrendered with his hands in the air and ignored Rodriquez’s repeated requests for medical care. When police did respond, Rodriguez had to be airlifted to a medical center and spent five days in intensive care. |
Compensation
$590,000.00 |
Niskayuna, New York | 2020 |
Erick Rosenberg alleged in a lawsuit that Niskayuna police officers used excessive force during a 2016 arrest. His claim was settled for $192,500. As a result of the police encounter, Rosenberg had his arm broken by Niskayuna officers. He now has impaired use of the arm and in his hand. |
Compensation
$192,500.00 |
Dunwoody, Georgia | 2020 |
Yadata Osman claims that officers in Dunwoody, Georgia, intentionally ran him over with their car during a chase in 2017. Dunwoody’s insurance carrier will pay Osman $400,000 to settle the lawsuit, while the city and police department did not admit to any wrongdoing. The injuries Osman sustained after being struck by a Dunwoody Police vehicle resulted in several surgeries and $370,000 in medical bills. Osman was pursued for driving erratically in a parking lot. |
Compensation
$400,000.00 |
Manlius, New York | 2020 |
Officer Kerryn Wolongevicz settled a claim of sexual harassment for a $200,000 with the Manlius Police Department. Officer Wolongevicz, who no longer works in Manlius, was told that she would be disciplined if she complained about vulgar comments made in her presence by her colleagues. The village and town of Manlius will now offer sex discrimination training to its officers. |
Compensation
$200,000.00 |
Santa Rosa, California | 2020 |
Argelio Giron received a six-figure settlement after being shot in the groin by a rubber bullet during a protest against police brutality in May 2020. The settlement payment will reimburse Giron for his medical expenses, related to the emergency surgery care he received after his encounter with police. There are additional legal proceedings pending against the city by six other demonstrators who allege they were subject to police violence during protests. |
Compensation
$200,000.00 |