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alp227

(31,962 posts)
Thu Jul 3, 2014, 09:16 PM Jul 2014

4 protesters awarded $185K over 2004 RNC arrests [View all]

Source: AP

NEW YORK (AP) — Four people arrested at an anti-war march during the 2004 Republican National Convention have been awarded $185,000 in the first trial stemming from lawsuits over protest arrests surrounding the GOP gathering.

Coming about six months after the city reached an $18 million settlement with about 1,800 other RNC protesters, Wednesday's federal jury verdict caps a lingering chapter in the legal saga that followed the arrests, nearly all of which ended with cases dismissed or defendants acquitted.

The four plaintiffs in the trial had rejected the settlement. Jurors awarded each $40,000 in compensatory damages for being wrongfully arrested, more than what individual protesters got in the settlement, which included about $7 million in attorneys' fees. The jury also awarded a total of $25,000 in punitive damages against police Deputy Chief Thomas Monahan, who led the response to the march.

Still, "this is not about money. It's about stopping police abuses in squashing First Amendment rights," one of the protesters, Howard J. Gale of Seattle, said Friday.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/4-protesters-get-185000-over-convention-arrests

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"It's about stopping police abuses" Spitfire of ATJ Jul 2014 #1
Justice delayed is justice denied, except for the patient lawyers raking in $7 million.....fees Fred Sanders Jul 2014 #2
Years of legal work by dozens of lawyer and their staffs, reams of documents, depositions, Dustlawyer Jul 2014 #3
Sorry Bickle Jul 2014 #4
Too bad it doesn't work that way. I have been watching people and businesses struggling and Dustlawyer Jul 2014 #5
I know what you go through Bickle Jul 2014 #8
I don't think it was the plaintiffs' attorneys that dragged this one out. /nt Ash_F Jul 2014 #6
It's our extremely wasteful system Bickle Jul 2014 #7
pertinent question reddread Jul 2014 #10
Was I Bickle Jul 2014 #11
I guess thats an answer-"the beating?" I salute your command of the facts reddread Jul 2014 #13
At the sight? No. In town actually doing things! Yes Bickle Jul 2014 #14
must have been awfully busy ever since reddread Jul 2014 #15
I am well aware of protest suppression Bickle Jul 2014 #16
:) reddread Jul 2014 #17
100,000 people marched I. North Carolina Bickle Jul 2014 #18
wtfever reddread Jul 2014 #19
Ah typical Bickle Jul 2014 #20
wanna be terrorist reddread Jul 2014 #21
Post removed Post removed Jul 2014 #25
interesting results reddread Jul 2014 #26
There is a lot of waste for sure, but also we have to have safe guards (as much as you can) Dustlawyer Jul 2014 #12
Having been through the system, I can somewhat agree. Ash_F Jul 2014 #24
Righteous rant! Hassin Bin Sober Jul 2014 #9
Lawyers getting a third is the low end of the standard range rocktivity Jul 2014 #23
Victory! tabasco Jul 2014 #22
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