News
Update:
$13 million settlement for 680 IMF and World Bank protesters arrested in 2000 
On November 23, 2009, NPAP member attorneys Mara Verheyden-Hilliard and Carl Messineo of the Partnership for Civil Justice announced that they have settled Becker et al. v. District of Columbia, a first amendment class-action lawsuit on behalf of 680 protesters who were illegally arrested following an April 2000 lawful protest of the IMF and World Bank, for $13,300,000 and new rules requiring advanced training for police officers assigned to protests. The protesters accused the Washington, D.C. Police Department of trapping and arresting demonstrators in a calculated attempt to disrupt the protest. Several protesters claimed that D.C. police beat them, put them in stress positions, and held them for hours without access to food, water or restrooms. These protesters received additional payments in the settlement, bringing the total to $13,700,000 including attorneys’ fees.
The settlement requires the District of Columbia to pay each of the 680 arrestees $18,000. In addition, the settlement imposes a higher burden on the Washington, D.C. police to properly train officers assigned to protests in the city.
$2.9 million settlement in Wrongful Conviction case with the City and County of San Francisco
Following a ruling by the Ninth Circuit on June 23, 2009, NPAP member attorneys Randolph Daar and John Scott settled a wrongful conviction case with the City and County of San Francisco, CA for $2,900,000. The plaintiff was the victim of numerous Brady violations by both police and the assistant district attorney. In February 2006 the district court denied the defendants' motion for summary judgment, finding that the prosecutor had a Brady duty post-conviction to insure that plaintiff receive Brady evidence that came to light after his conviction. The court found that the prosecutor had only qualified immunity in the post-conviction context, since he was no longer litigating the case after it had been assigned to the state attorney general. The Ninth Circuit affirmed the denial and issued an excellent discussion of the officers' Brady duties and qualified immunity in its amended opinion.
To read the Ninth Circuit opinion, click here.
To read the District Court opinion, click here.
Anti-war protesters secretly interrogated by the FBI in 2002 secure large settlement and reform to Washington, D.C. police practices
On November 10, 2009, NPAP member attorneys Mara Verheyden-Hilliard and Carl Messineo of the Partnership for Civil Justice announced that they have settled a first amendment case involving eight people who were illegally arrested following an April 20, 2002 lawful anti-war protest for $450,000 and changes in police procedures and policies. The protesters accused the Washington, D.C. Police Department of politically targeting them based on the black clothing that some were wearing. Following their arrests, they were interrogated about their political beliefs by a secret intelligence unit of the FBI. The arrests have since been expunged.
The case had been litigated for six years and was about to go to trial. The settlement requires the District of Columbia to pay $250,000 in attorneys’ fees and $25,000 to each of the eight arrestees in addition to the approximately $200,000 the District has already paid in the course of the litigation for attorneys’ fees including sanctions for its discovery misconduct. Importantly, the settlement requires that the Washington, D.C. Police Department modify its policies, specifically that police officers formally approve and document any effort by federal authorities to gain access to interview or interrogate protestors.
Six-figure settlement for custody death of mentally ill inmate in Ohio
On October 31, 2009, NPAP member attorney Terry H. Gilbert announced that mediation had produced a settlement for $862,500 in a § 1983 case against Summit County Jail (OH) and Akron Police Department Deputies involving the custody death of mentally ill inmate. The inmate required medication but refused to leave his cell. In response, the deputies at first made no effort to extricate him appropriate safety gear. Rather, they tasered him twice, handcuffed him, and shackled him with his chest on the metal bed in a prone position. The deputies left and came back ten minutes later with a one pound riot control can of OC spray, and doused the inmate with a three to five second spray on his back and neck. The inmate was pronounced dead at the scene.
DC District Court rules strip-search of IMF protesters violated the Fourth Amendment
On August 25, 2009, NPAP member attorney Lynn E. Cunningham secured a favorable Fourth Amendment ruling from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia involving protestors arrested at the September, 2002 IMF protests in Washington, D.C. The defendant, a U.S. Marshal for the Washington, D.C. Superior Court strip searched the protestors just prior to their court appearances and release. The federal district court denied the defendant’s motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity, holding that blanket strip searches of non-violent, non-felony arrestees were unlawful at the time of the searches in September, 2002.
To read the decision click here. [PDF]
Landmark victory in wrongful conviction case affirmed
On August 27, 2009 the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed a landmark verdict for four men framed by the FBI for a murder they did not commit. The appellate judges wrote that the 2007 damages judgment of $101.7 million by US District Judge Nancy Gertner was considerably higher than they would have ordered “but when we take into account the severe emotional trauma inflicted upon the scapegoats, we cannot say with any firm conviction that those awards are grossly disproportionate to the injuries sustained.”
The case was litigated by a team of lawyers, among them NPAP’s Howard Friedman and Michael Avery. Avery calls it “the most sordid and shocking case that I came across in nearly four decades of litigating law enforcement misconduct.” The FBI agents had suborned perjury, framed four men and conspired to keep them in jail for over thirty years. The four men, Joseph Salvati, Peter J. Limone, Louis Greco and Henry Tameleo, were implicated in the murder of Edward Deegan by Joe Barboza, the FBI’s star witness and mafia hit man, who himself was involved in killing Deegan. Based on Barboza’s testimony, which the FBI knew to be false, Limone, Tameleo, and Greco were sentenced to death, Salvati to life in prison. The death sentences were reduced to life imprisonment when the death penalty was vacated.
Tameleo and Greco died in prison in 1985 and 1995, respectively. Salvati was freed in 1997 when then Governor Weld commuted his sentence. In 2001, after a lengthy investigation into the Boston office of the FBI, Limone was released and a new trial concluded that there was no good faith basis to further prosecute the defendant. Based on this investigation, all four men were eventually exonerated. The civil lawsuit against the FBI was filed in 2002.
To read the decision click here. [PDF]
Royal Oak, MI: Six-figure settlement in wrongful arrest case
On August 20, 2009
the Detroit News reported that the city of Royal Oak agreed the day before to a six-figure settlement in the wrongful arrest case of two Windsor men, Timothy McGuire and James Ryan who were represented by David Robinson & Associates of Southfield, MI. The men had been wrongfully arrested and jailed for more than a week for an assault they had not committed after officers Douglas Warner and Barry Gale had falsely accused them. Racine Michelle Miller, attorney at Robinson & Associates said the settlement ended four years of litigation, up to the Court of Appeals and back, and three weeks of federal court trial. David A. Robinson, the lawyer for McGuire and Ryan, said the trial revealed a "web of deceit."
To read the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion affirming the district courts denial of the defendants' motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity click here. [PDF]
Settlement in Illinois prison treatment lawsuit
On Thursday August 13, 2009, NPAP member attorneys John Stainthorp and Michael Deutsch from the People’s Law Office in Chicago announced that they settled the prison treatment case involving ex-inmate Hakeem Shaheed for $48,000. Shaheed accused federal prison employees of defiling his Quran and retaliating against him on several occasions after he complained. The physical abuse included torture with a nightstick and twisting and yanking the prisoner’s toes to an extent that he had to be relocated to another prison in a wheelchair.
US District Court Judge Michael Reagan canceled the jury trial scheduled for September 14 and gave the attorneys two months to put the settlement into writing.
Houston man gets awarded $5 million for wrongful conviction
On June 25, 2009, a $5 million award has been granted to a Houston man for 17 years he spent in jail for a crime he did not commit. The plaintiff was represented by NPAP member firm Neufeld Scheck & Brustin and
co-counsel Susman Godfrey. The plaintiff, George Rodriguez, 48, gained his freedom in 2004 after DNA tests proved his innocence. The Houston Police Department Crime Lab has been troubled of late by an increase in accusations of misconduct.
The case is also noteworthy for the excellent summary judgment decision won by the litigating team concerning Monell liability for fabrication of evidence by a crime lab criminalist.
To read the summary judgment decision click here. [PDF]
Historic Chicago wrongful conviction case
June 22, 2009 - NPAP member firm Loevy & Loevy has received the largest ever wrongful conviction award in the city of Chicago on behalf of their client Juan Johnson. The jury granted Johnson $21 million in compensatory damages and $15,000 in punitives. Juan Johnson was convicted of murder at age 21 based on 5 eyewitness identifications procured by
former Chicago Police gang crimes specialist Reynaldo Guevara who had a history of framing suspects. Johnson eventually won a new trial, and was acquitted, but he first served 11.5 years in prison. At the civil trial, that lasted a little more than two weeks, the defense called 2 witnesses to say that Juan Johnson committed the murder, but the other three witnesses said the officer set it all up.
Taser moratorium in Moberly, Alabama
On June 22, 2009 the Associated Press reported that Moberly, Alabama has agreed to a moratorium on the use of stun guns by its police officers. In addition, it will pay $2.4 million to the family of a man who was shocked several times during a traffic stop and died a short time later. The moratorium will be in place until the depart-ment's Taser policy has been revised and two town hall meetings have been held. The settlement also mandates that officers are trained to recognize and respond to medical distress.
The family’s lead attorney, NPAP member Stephen M. Ryals, said he is considering a lawsuit against the maker of the stun gun, Taser International Inc. of Scottsdale, Ariz.
DC checkpoints unconstitutional
On Friday, July 10, 2009 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has ruled to end the checkpoints run by D.C. police in neighborhoods high in crime. The court ruled that the checkpoints violated the citizen’s constitutional rights. NPAP members Mara Verheyden-Hilliard and Carl Messineo, attorneys for the Partnership for Civil Justice, represented the plaintiffs. The ruling was the reversal of a previous decision made by U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon. The case has been sent back to the lower court for further proceedings.
To read the decision click here. [PDF]
Chicago changes settlement terms in civil rights cases
At the end of June 2009, the city of Chicago agreed to change their standard agreement concerning settlements in federal civil rights cases against police officers accused of misconduct and drop a provision that precludes using previous settlements as evidence in future litigation. The change in procedure was a result of negotiations between the Chicago Police Department and NPAP member and University of Chicago professor Craig Futterman.
To read Craig Futterman's letter confirming the changes click here. [PDF]
To read an article regarding the ethical implications of restrictions to use settlements in future litigation click here. [PDF]
Texas Civil Rights Project lawsuit brings about protective legislation
In this May 19, 2009 Press Release from the Texas Civil Rights Project, Director James Harrington announces the passage of a new Texas State Law protecting the genetic data of newborns. The law was passed as a direct result of the Texas Civil Rights Project’s federal lawsuit seeking to end the practice of the Texas Department of State Health Services collecting and indefinitely storing blood samples from screening done at childbirth without parental consent or disclosure to the parent since 2002.
For the entire press release click here. [PDF]
NPAP board member John Burris in the news
In this extensive and illuminating article about NPAP Member John L. Burris the reader is taken through a day in the life of a successful Civil Rights Lawyer.
To read the entire article click here.
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