Settlements

On October 3, 2018, sheriff’s deputies stopped Okobi on suspicion of jaywalking and subsequently used their Tasers, batons, and pepper spray on him. After Deputy Joshua Wang deployed his Taser seven times, Okobi suffered cardiac arrest and died. The County District Attorney’s Office cleared Wang and four other deputies of any criminal charges. The incident spurred calls for a moratorium on Taser use in San Mateo County. The Sheriff’s Office later revised its use-of-force policy, advising against deploying Tasers more than three times against a person unless there are exceptional circumstances. Okobi’s death also influenced reforms to California’s jaywalking law that limited law enforcement’s ability to stop pedestrians for minor infractions.

In 2012, Cardile was at her then-boyfriend’s home in Yonkers when they had an argument, and he called the police. The responding officers demanded Cardile produce her driver’s license. Cardile alleged that as she was walking to retrieve her license from her vehicle, four male officers pushed her to the ground without provocation, kicked her, lifted her by the throat, and threw her against the trunk of her car. The officers then took her to a holding cell. Several hours later, Cardile received treatment at a hospital for a hand fracture and arm injuries. Cardile filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in 2014 alleging that the officers used unreasonable and excessive force. Although the City denied any wrongdoing, they settled with her for $50,000. 

During the party, Ramos’ sister called 911 and asked police to remove an unwanted visitor. According to Ramos’ lawsuit, Springfield officers Matthew Rief and Herminio Rivas Jr. arrived at the party and announced their intention to arrest Ramos, even though he was not the unwanted visitor. Ramos raised his hands in surrender to the officers, but Rief proceeded to strike Ramos over the head with a steel baton and later maced him in the face. Ramos suffered a fractured skull and other injuries that required plastic surgery.

In 1992, Ricks was convicted of fatally shooting his friend Gerry Bennett in the head outside of a restaurant. During the investigation, police seized a gun that belonged to Ricks’ mother and claimed that it was the murder weapon. After the case was reopened in 2016 on request by the Innocence Clinic at University of Michigan Law School, further examination revealed that the bullets that killed Bennett did not match the ones found in Ricks’ mother’s gun. An expert working for the City testified during depositions that the original bullet analysis by the police lab had been completely wrong.

Two guardians of children who were present at the incident were also awarded $15,000 each. In January 2020, two Baltimore County police officers, S. Brennan and B. Schmidt, arrived at Mellerson’s home to arrest her daughter for disorderly conduct. Mellerson alleged that the officers were hostile and used a Taser and pepper spray. At one point during the encounter, an officer pushed Mellerson to the ground. The incident was recorded via the officers’ body-worn cameras. Mellerson initially faced charges of interfering with an arrest, obstructing and hindering, and assault, but those charges were dropped. Both the Baltimore Police Chief and County Executive condemned the actions of the officers, who were still employed by the Baltimore County Police Department as of 2022.

Green, a Black man, was driving in Tampa when he experienced a diabetic emergency and struggled to control his steering wheel. After a nearby motorist called 911, police reached Green but did not get him the immediate medical attention he needed. Instead, they handcuffed him and put him in a prone position (meaning face-down on the ground) where he struggled to breathe and later died. In addition to an undisclosed financial settlement, the Tampa Police Department agreed to make changes to its procedures on how officers handle cases where people are held in a prone position. Green’s family requested an official apology from Tampa Mayor Jane Castor because she was Tampa’s Police Chief at the time of Green’s death, but Castor refused.

Henderson agreed to pay $25,000, and Las Vegas Metropolitan agreed to pay $65,000. In 2020, Henderson Police officers pulled over Brown, who was twenty-three years old at the time, for driving without his headlights on. The officers then arrested Brown because they believed he had an outstanding felony weapons warrant in Las Vegas. However, the actual subject of the warrant was a five-foot-eleven, forty-nine-year-old white man with a bushy beard and blue eyes, and Brown is a five-foot-seven Black man. Brown spent six days in two different detention facilities before officers recognized their mistake. The $90,000 settlement is near the $100,000 maximum that Nevada law allows when suing a government entity.

Portland Police Sergeant Nicholas Goodman killed twenty-two-year-old Baker in Portland’s Union Station Plaza in 2017. Baker was experiencing a mental health crisis and holding an air rifle at the time of his killing. After multiple 911 calls reporting Baker’s behavior, Goodman joined other officers at the scene and fatally shot Baker within minutes of arriving. A federal judge denied Goodman qualified immunity from the case, which allowed the lawsuit to proceed.

On April 16, 2022, one of Baca’s daughters called 911 to report that Baca, who experienced dementia and was in the midst of a mental health crisis, was threatening her family members with a knife. Cosper arrived on the scene and asked Baca to drop the two knives she was holding sixteen times in forty seconds before fatally shooting her twice. Cosper spoke to Baca in English, although Baca spoke only Spanish. Bodycam footage indicated that Baca’s daughter and granddaughter had been trying to explain Baca’s mental illness to officers, but Cosper told them to “back up” while he aimed his gun at Baca. As of July 2022, the Third Judicial District Attorney’s Office had not decided whether to charge Cosper, but the City settled with Baca’s family for $2.75 million, the maximum amount possible.

On May 29, 2018, Officer Casey Davies responded to a call about two armed robberies in Salt Lake County. James was suspected of robbing the stores while armed with an airsoft gun and fleeing on his motorcycle. Davies allegedly hit James with his patrol vehicle and then shot him multiple times, and James later succumbed to his injuries. Following an investigation, the Salt Lake County District Attorney determined that Davies’ use of deadly force by vehicle in a collision was not justified, but declined to charge Davies with a crime. Davies is no longer employed as an officer in Cottonwood Heights. The settlement was paid through Cottonwood Heights’ insurance provider, Utah Local Governments Trust.

On January 6, 2021, Macduff’s roommate called the police to say that Macduff was experiencing a mental health crisis. Macduff was sitting alone in his pickup truck, unarmed, when six police officers arrived and requested that he exit the truck. When he did not comply, officers fired three beanbag rounds into his windshield. Officer Gabriel Maldonado then fired five close-range gunshots at Macduff, killing him. The officers had called Macduff’s mother, who is a doctor, during the standoff so she could talk to her son as she had helped de-escalate similar situations in the past, but she was disconnected and not contacted again for two hours. As part of the settlement, the Police Department agreed to implement several reforms, including using body cameras department-wide, transitioning from beanbag shotguns to foam projectiles as non-lethal options, clarifying the language in the department’s use-of-force policy, and creating additional de-escalation training. Maldonado resigned from the Tigard Police Department and began working as a Port of Portland police officer four days later.

McIntyre was seventeen years old when he was arrested for the shooting deaths of two men in 1994. McIntyre was released in 2017 after a local prosecutor asked the court to vacate his convictions and drop all charges because prosecutors in the original trial had no physical evidence tying McIntyre to the murders and had largely relied on testimonies that were allegedly coerced. In a lawsuit filed in 2018, the McIntyres alleged that starting in the 1980s, Detective Roger Golubski had made sexual demands of Rosie and threatened to arrest her and her boyfriend if she did not consent. Golubski went on to sexually assault and harass her, and she moved to escape the abuse. Later, Golubski allegedly framed her son in the double homicide case. The lawsuit also alleged that Golubski repeatedly abused and exploited Black women for sex and then used them as anonymous “informants” to clear his other cases or to protect drug dealers. Over seventy women whom Golubski allegedly victimized were listed in the pretrial order. Since Lamonte’s incarceration, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety. Rosie was in and out of psychological treatment for years and was also diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Golubski worked at the Kansas City Police Department as a Captain until his retirement in 2010, receiving a full pension, and then went to serve as a Detective at the Edwardsville Police Department until 2016. The Unified Government did not admit to wrongdoing through paying the settlement.

Roberson was on duty as a security guard at a lounge when a fight broke out that resulted in shots being fired. Roberson was holding down the gunman in the parking lot, with his own weapon aimed at the gunman, when Officer Ian Covey arrived at the scene. Covey claimed that Roberson was not clearly identified as a security guard, and he ordered Roberson to drop his weapon. Covey then shot and killed Roberson. Multiple witnesses at the scene disputed Covey’s account and said that Roberson was wearing both a hat and a shirt that identified him as a security guard. The Roberson family fought for charges against Covey, but the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office said there was not enough evidence. The $7.5 million went to Roberson’s young daughter, whom he never had the chance to meet.

Jaime Bunkholt, an Atlanta-based photographer, alleged in her federal lawsuit that an unidentified officer with the Minneapolis Police Department fired a rubber bullet that hit her in the back of the head during a 2020 protest. Bunkholt sustained both permanent and temporary injuries, including a concussion. The Minneapolis City Council agreed to settle Bunkholt’s lawsuit for $500,000.

Potter, who had a trainee with her, initially pulled over Wright for an expired tag and an illegal air freshener. After police learned that Wright had an outstanding warrant, Potter proceeded to shoot and kill him, claiming that she mistook her gun for a taser. The twenty-six-year police veteran was later sentenced to two years in prison for manslaughter. Wright’s killing occurred less than a year after an officer of the Minneapolis Police Department murdered George Floyd about ten miles away. The settlement with Wright’s family was “in exchange for a release of the City, its employees, and Kim Potter from any claims or actions stemming from Mr. Wright’s death.” The settlement also required new policies and procedures for Brooklyn Center police officers, including trainings on implicit bias, weapons confusion, de-escalation, and how to navigate mental health crises. 

As Aguirre left a one-vehicle wreck in 2013, three police officers who responded to the scene pinned him down for over five minutes and then allowed three additional minutes to pass before they rendered medical aid. The examiner ruled Aguirre’s cause of death as “positional asphyxiation” and “excited delirium” brought on by his restraint and subsequently ruled Aguirre’s death a homicide. The family originally filed suit in 2015. The settlement came in 2022, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit determined that San Antonio Police Department officers were not entitled to qualified immunity in this case. 

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law represented the marchers. The lawsuit was connected to a 2020 “march to the polls” event, where sheriff’s deputies and police officers pepper-sprayed marchers, including children and elderly people, for blocking a street without permission. Under the terms of the settlement, the Police Department and sheriff’s office did not claim any responsibility for the incident. 

On May 31, 2020, Mia Wright, Tnika Tate, Kim Woods, Ebony Wilbourn, and Javon Hill went to a mall to shop for party supplies and baby items, when officers accused them of attempting to loot a sporting goods store. Officer David Laskus falsely claimed that he saw someone with a hammer attempt to break a store window and then get back in the car with Wright and the others, even though surveillance video showed otherwise. When the group started to drive away at the direction of other officers, police used their batons to smash the car’s windows and demanded that everyone get out of the vehicle. Laskus pulled Wright out of the car by her hair and kneeled on her back and neck. Officer Patrick Dwyer, who retired in July 2020, used racist and sexist language during the incident. The City Council agreed in March 2022 to settle the lawsuit with payments totaling $1.625 million to the five individuals in the car.

Riley and ten other WPD employees signed an August 2020 letter calling for the termination of WPD Officer Aaron Dalton due to his violations of civil rights, threats against other officers, falsification of paperwork, and use of racial profanity. In October 2020, the mayor informed Riley that her position was being eliminated, which Riley’s legal counsel argued was retaliation for her whistleblowing. This settlement followed a series of other payouts by the City for incidents of police misconduct by Dalton and other officers, including a $750,000 settlement to William Cox and a $350,000 settlement to Andre Howton. The City placed Dalton on paid administrative leave for more than a year before ultimately terminating him.

The deputies fired several shots, one of which struck Brown in the back of his head and killed him. His family commissioned an independent autopsy that said police shot Brown five times, including the fatal shot to the back of his head. Brown’s family filed a $30 million civil rights lawsuit in 2021, asserting that the deputies displayed “intentional and reckless disregard” for Brown’s life. In May 2021, the county district attorney deemed the shooting “justified” and declined to prosecute the officers involved.

Gladney filed the lawsuit against Officer Tyler Ryan Timberlake in 2021, alleging that the officer used excessive force against him and falsely arrested him. Timberlake was charged with misdemeanor assault, but a grand jury found him not guilty.

Evans filed the suit in March 2022, alleging that Hersl and other officers with the GTTF planted crack cocaine on him, applied for warrants based on false allegations, and illegally arrested him following a 2012 search. Evans originally sought $1.5 million in damages in a case that was dismissed in 2020. The parties agreed to the 2022 settlement to avoid the expense and uncertainty of prolonged litigation. Hersl, one of eight GTTF members indicted on charges including racketeering, robbery, extortion, and overtime fraud, was sentenced to eighteen years in prison. As of June 2022, the City of Baltimore had paid over $14 million to settle lawsuits related to GTTF misconduct.

Jackson and Stallings were standing in a parking lot in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in May 2020 when a Minneapolis SWAT team fired 40mm plastic projectiles, which hit Stallings in the chest. The SWAT team had been driving around Minneapolis in an unmarked white cargo van and firing plastic projectiles at people who were out after a curfew imposed in the wake of protests over George Floyd’s murder by police. Stallings, thinking the people in the unmarked van were white supremacists, responded to being shot at by firing back with his pistol, but he later testified that he purposefully missed. The officers then jumped out of the van. Even though Stallings and Jackson both tried to surrender, and video shows them on their knees with their hands up, officers beat Stallings for thirty seconds and beat and tased Jackson for two minutes. Stallings, an Army veteran, was later acquitted of all charges.

Ingram’s lawsuit named Camden County, the Camden County Police Department, then-Assistant Chief of Police Orlando Cuevas, then-Police Chief John Scott Thomson, and officers Jeremy Merck, Antonio Gennetta, and Nicholas Marchiafava as defendants. The suit accused the officers of using excessive force and failing to provide necessary medical care, resulting in Ingram’s severe cervical spine injuries and permanent quadriplegia. The County agreed to a settlement in May 2022 after years of litigation and a mistrial in Camden federal court declared on March 29, 2022, when a jury became deadlocked on whether the officers were responsible for Ingram’s injuries.

Tirado had traveled to Minneapolis in May 2020 to cover the protests in response to George Floyd’s murder by police. She claimed in her lawsuit that police targeted her as she took photos outside a police precinct in south Minneapolis on May 29, 2020. She alleged that officers ignored her press credentials and fired a foam bullet at her, striking her in the face and shattering her protective goggles.