Three lawsuits, a bunch of Atlanta police misconduct, some reforms and $1.475 million later, Mayor Kasim Reed, the city and its LGBT residents might just be done with the botched Eagle raid.
Maybe just maybe.
On Monday, the Atlanta City Council approved a $330,000 settlement to end a third lawsuit filed by gay attorney Dan Grossman over the raid. The city’s total payout for the botched Eagle raid? $1.475 million. Chip in another $25,000 to pay Grossman for making sure Atlanta police implement reforms mandated by the lawsuits.
The settlement on Monday came packaged in a $940,000 offering to Grossman, who has filed three other lawsuits alleging misconduct by Atlanta police. Think strip searches, seized cameras and a dislike of women in chairs. That other strip search and ass play in public? That’s so eight months ago.
The GA Voice offers a breakdown of the City Council settlement for Grossman’s non-Eagle lawsuits:
Grossman represented several men who alleged they were illegally strip searched in public. That suit was settled for $470,000 plus mandatory training of officers on constitutional rights to go along with similar Eagle training.
The APD arrested a woman for videotaping a male being beaten by Red Dog Officers and confiscated her cellphone. This case was settled for $50,000.
The city settled a lawsuit by a woman arrested while sitting in a chair for $90,000.
A statement from Reed’s office heralded the settlements as a big accomplishment, despite fighting the lawsuits each step of the way, ignoring opportunities to settle them and having city attorneys that botched the cases.
The city is pleased to end this chapter of litigation and move forward in the spirit of cooperation. Plaintiffs and the city jointly recognize that now is the time to end costly and time-consuming litigation and conflict, and move forward with a newly-strengthened relationship between the police department and the community.
Grossman was a little less sanguine.
“Over the past 24 months the city has paid out $2.6 million dollars all for police misconduct,” he tells the GA Voice. “The police department could have been improved without the city paying $2.6 million.”
Besides, the city still faces at least one more lawsuit over the raid. But at least that Atlanta cop won’t get his job back.
