St. Louis area residents arrested in 2017 after the acquittal of a white police officer in the 2011 death of a black man have begun to cash in.
Earlier this year, the city agreed to a $4.9 million settlement and said it would pay 84 people who were arrested after a judge found former St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley not guilty in the 2011 death of Anthony Lamar Smith.
The first checks were distributed Friday, according to the Associated Press.
As reported by USA Today, Stockley pursued Smith after police observed what they believed to be a drug deal and later shot Smith to death.
In issuing the ruling in Stockley’s case, Circuit Judge Timothy Wilson wrote, “Finally, the Court observes, based on its nearly thirty years on the bench, that an urban heroin dealer not in possession of a firearm would be an anomaly.”
After the verdict, riots broke out in which 11 police officers were injured and the home of then-St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson was splattered with red paint and had a window smashed.
However, since that time, the protesters filed a lawsuit basing their claim on the police tactic used in which everyone in a given area was surrounded and then arrested.
In addition to the 84 people who settled with the city en masse, three others filed individual lawsuits, settling for $85,000 each. Payouts in the group settlement will range from $28,000 and more than $150,000.
The city denied any wrongdoing in the settlement agreement, according to KSDK.
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“Neither this Settlement Agreement, nor any of its terms and provisions, nor any of the negotiations connected with it, shall be construed as an admission or concession by the Defendant City, or any current, former, or future employee, agent, or officer of Defendant City, of any legal violations, any legal requirements, or any failure to comply with any applicable law,” the agreement said.
Dekita Roberts first thought the call she got over the payment she received was a scam, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
“It was just a shock and a surprise,” she said. Roberts’ goal is to invest the money and set some aside for her children.
Overall, St. Louis has paid more than $10 million due to police actions on the night Stockley was acquitted, including $5 million to Luther Hall, a black undercover officer who said police officers assaulted him thinking he was a protester, and $115,000 to a Kansas City filmmaker who claimed he was beaten and pepper-sprayed during the protests, according to the AP.
Attorney Javad Khazaeli criticized the pace of the payouts.
“Other cities that have done this have gone through the whole process and trials in a year and a half,” Khazaeli said. “We’ve had people move away from St. Louis because people are still afraid of the police.”
The Associated Press noted last week that New York City has agreed to pay over $13 million to approximately 1,300 people to settle a civil rights lawsuit.
The St. Louis payment was denounced by The Gateway Pundit as “the latest Democrat-run city to offer massive payouts to leftist protesters and rioters who caused havoc in their communities and are now winning big payouts from local courts.” The outlet claimed the money went to “radical leftists.”
