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$645,000 Settlement to Army Veteran for Police Brutality Surrounding Occupy Oakland Protests

$645,000 Settlement to Army Veteran for Police Brutality Surrounding Occupy Oakland Protests

On January 7, 2013, in the Northern District of California, a §1983 suit was filed against three Oakland police officers in a police brutality claim after the officers were videotaped attacking an unarmed protester. The city of Oakland offered $645,000 to settle the dispute with plaintiff Kayvan Sabeghi in lieu of further proceedings. Sabeghi, a U.S. Army veteran of both Afghanistan and Iraq wars, lost the use of his spleen that night to police nightsticks. In December 2013, Sabeghi accepted the offer.

Plaintiff Sabeghi attended the November 2, 2011 Occupy Oakland protest in support of economic justice and in protest of police brutality on pervious days in that same rally. The protest went off without incident, but that night, after he left a restaurant and was walking home, he was confronted by a line of Oakland Police officers, the named defendants in the instant cause, and stopped. Plaintiff asked to pass and the police refused. Plaintiff argued with the police, criticizing their methods, which resulted in the beating, plaintiff’s arrest, and an 18-hour delay while he was being shuttled from conveyance to conveyance before being brought to Alameda County Jail. All while bleeding internally, and scorned as a heroin addict for his vomiting.

Plaintiff suffered pain and disability for eight months following the beating. He lost earnings and was unable to participate in many of his customary leisure and exercise activities as a result of his injuries. Additionally, his lack of a functioning spleen increases his risk of serious infection for the remainder of his life.

Sabeghi sued the individual police officers involved in the beating, the county jail guards involved in his delayed booking and lack of medical attention, and the City of Oakland for causing plaintiff’s injuries by allowing customs, policies, directives, practices, acts and omissions that resulted in the trampling of his constitutional rights. His claims included the violation of his First Amendment freedom of speech rights, his Fourth Amendment freedom from unnecessary, excessive or arbitrary use of force, and his Fourteenth Amendment due process rights. Sabeghi also sought damages for assault and battery, false imprisonment (state law indicates that Sabeghi should have been cited and released), his right to be free from intimidation and violence as a result of his political affiliation pursuant to California Civil Code, and negligence on the part of the defendants for not properly training his arresting officers in all aspects of his custody.

This was one of several suits arising out of the actions of the Oakland Police Department, several more still pending, including more from Sabeghi. The city is settling these claims as fast as it can. See: Sabeghi v. Uu, U.S.D.C. (N.D. Cal. 2013), Case no. C12-06057-JSC.

Source: http:blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2013/12/occupy_oakland_police_brutality.php

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Related legal case

Sabeghi v. Uu