Last year, the city of St. Paul paid the largest amount in
lawsuits alleging police misconduct -- about $1 million in total costs -- in at
least 17 years.
One case, settled for $400,000, involved a woman left with
serious burns when St. Paul police used a flash-bang distraction device while
executing a search warrant at her home.
In another case, a man who ran from police wound up with a
skull fracture, gashes on his head that required 21 staples to close and burns
to his face caused by chemical spray. The city settled his lawsuit, which
alleged that officers used excessive force, for $249,000.
Thomas Smith has been police chief since 2010. John Harrington
preceded him, beginning his six-year term in 2004. Lawsuits are sometimes
resolved years after the incidents that triggered them.
Of the eight lawsuits alleging police misconduct that the
city settled last year, half the incidents occurred during Smith's tenure as
chief and the other half occurred during Harrington's time as chief, a Pioneer
Press analysis found. In those eight cases, total costs -- settlement amounts,
city attorney staff time and court costs -- were almost $800,000 in the Smith cases
and more than $230,000 in the Harrington cases.
The recent large payouts have been to people with
significant injuries, said City Attorney Sara Grewing. But she said larger
conclusions shouldn't be drawn from the recent cases because the decision to settle
a lawsuit is "based on what's in the best interest of the city in terms of
dollars and cents."
"In my office, we look at these cases through the eyes
of a future jury and a future judge," Grewing said. "And what they
see and how they view the case is very different than the judgment calls that a
police officer makes at 2:00 in the morning in the middle of the city."
But more people in the community are calling for greater
accountability for police officers, saying they'd like to see the money the city
spends on settlements used for other needs.
"There's got to be a way of holding an officer
accountable for what they do and not put their misdeeds on the backs of
taxpayers of St. Paul," said Jeff Martin, president of the St. Paul NAACP.
"There's got to be some equity in the system -- if you're an officer who
cost the city some money, you should be held to a higher standard, whether
that's losing your job or maybe some of your pension."
Last year's settlements also came during a time when other
incidents brought scrutiny to the St. Paul police department. Among them:
-- Problems at the department's crime lab came to light.
-- A YouTube video that showed an officer kick a man during
an arrest drew widespread attention, and a recently released squad car video
shows another officer pepper-spraying the handcuffed man.
-- The city paid $385,000 to settle a lawsuit from a woman
who alleged police employees violated her privacy by inappropriately looking up
her private driver's license information.
-- Photos surfaced that showed two male officers dressed in
hijabs, head coverings traditionally worn by Muslim women, at Halloween
parties.
Smith said that there were difficult months last year but
that most of this year has been better. As each issue arose, he publicly vowed
to address them. And he stressed that the department had strong community
relationships before these issues came up and it still does.
Grewing said the amount paid to settle cases claiming police
misconduct last year was the largest since at least 1995, the period for which
her office had records.
The Pioneer Press analyzed lawsuits alleging St. Paul police
misconduct or excessive force that were settled from 2004 to the present; three
of the four largest settlements stemmed from incidents during Smith's tenure.
Smith points out that the three cases arose soon after he
took over the department in June 2010, and he said he's made changes since
then.
After becoming chief, Smith said, he increased the amount of
use-of-force training and improved it -- not because of lawsuits, but to keep
officers and the public safe. The department also made policy changes,
including regarding its use of Tasers.
Police in St. Paul make thousands of arrests a year
"and very few of these cases" lead to lawsuits, Smith said.
"Regardless of what happens with officers -- whether it
happens with lawsuits, complaints or whatever -- I never want to take away
their flexibility to defend themselves and the public," Smith said. He
said he doesn't want his officers to "worry that they're going to be
sued."
Martin said that Smith, who leads the department of more
than 600 officers, probably inherited problematic officers from past
administrations but must figure out how to handle them.
"We need a more collaborative method that shows us the
cops are clean, they're respectful, they're very professional," he said.
"You don't need thugs with badges. When you have these people and they
come to your attention, the chief should be fighting to fire them," which
means going up against the St. Paul Police Federation when the union appeals
discipline the chief has imposed.
A COST OF DOING BUSINESS?
The St. Paul Police Federation sees too much finger-pointing
at police over the settlement costs.
"These officers have seconds to decide life-and-death
situations," union president Dave Titus said. "Attorneys and city
management who have very little concept of police tactics can sit back for
months and months to debate what we did, and officers had the luxury of
seconds."
A St. Paul city attorney's list of the largest settlements
in 2012 showed 10 cases stemmed from the police department, four from public
works, one from the water department and one from the city council. The largest
non-police case was a trip-and-fall case against public works, settled for
$33,000.
St. Paul lawyers Paul Applebaum and Andrew Irlbeck
represented three people who obtained settlements in St. Paul police misconduct
lawsuits in the past 14 months.
Applebaum, who has been representing people with police
misconduct claims since 1995, said he's seen more cases with people who have
more serious injuries, in particular in St. Paul. He doesn't know whether
that's a sign that more people are coming forward than in the past or if more
serious cases are occurring.
Irlbeck said cities see "police misconduct and the
money that goes along with it as the cost of doing business rather than a
problem that can be solved on the political or policy-making end."
"It just seems to be a cost they're going to shoulder
and blame it on lawyers and greedy plaintiffs," he said, "when in
reality it's a failure of policy."
Smith disagreed, saying police evaluate what happens when
there are lawsuits or excessive-force complaints or when the department
otherwise becomes aware of concerns.
"We want to look to make sure we have followed our
training, our policies and procedures, and we want to make sure that if there
are things that we can improve upon, that we do that," he said.
Irlbeck said police departments tend not to impose serious discipline
on officers accused in lawsuits. He thinks that's partially because if a city
pays a settlement and fires the officer involved, it appears to be admitting
guilt.
Smith said that's not the case -- if officers are found to
have violated department policy, discipline could follow.
"I hold people accountable," he said, but he noted
that a city settlement of a lawsuit doesn't mean an officer did anything wrong.
Vaughn Larry, a community organizer and crime-prevention
coordinator with the Aurora St. Anthony Neighborhood Development Corp., said he
and other residents hear little about the Police-Civilian Internal Affairs
Review Commission, which has not posted an annual report online since 2009.
The board, which consists of five community members and two
police officers, reviews complaints against officers and makes recommendations
to the police chief about whether disciplinary action is warranted.
"I thought they did away with that thing," Larry
said of the board. "They were saying that it's not needed. But I do
believe we should have some say."
The board, still in existence, is called upon to meet with
the community three times a year, said Howie Padilla, St. Paul police
spokesman. If there are complaints that the board hasn't given enough information
to the community, they haven't reached the chief's office, he said.
Smith regularly meets with community groups, and the Rev.
Runney Patterson, pastor of New Hope Baptist Church on St. Paul's East Side,
said he and other leaders have met with the chief.
"If you ask me if relations with the police department
are better or worse, I think the (police settlement) numbers speak for
themselves," Patterson said. "Things have not really gotten any
better. There have been some concerns from our community, the African-American
community. When things continue to happen over and over again, it makes you
really wonder if people really want these things to get better."
Smith said the police department's relationship with the
community is strong. He says the department has won awards for
domestic-violence and auto-theft work, used social media to engage people, and
holds community outreach events. Serious crime in St. Paul has been down this
year, Smith said; he credits police prevention and intervention work.
"We're going to have challenges," Smith said,
"but we try to change our direction to make sure that we're doing the
right thing by the community because truly they're our No. 1 priority for
service in the city."
ATTORNEY FEES A FACTOR
St. Paul is self-insured and settlement costs come out of
the city's tort liability fund. In theory, the money that pays for settlements
could be used for anything else in the general fund.
But city council President Kathy Lantry said the reality is
that in years when money has been left in the tort liability fund the city
council has not used it to for other budget items. That's because
"settlements don't have a timeline, so we have to keep money
available," Lantry said.
The tort liability fund has grown in recent years, from a
budgeted $270,000 in 2011 to $319,500 in 2012 to $719,500 this year.
The Pioneer Press' analysis of lawsuits included settlement
amounts, city attorney staff time and court costs. Grewing, the city attorney,
said she disagreed with the inclusion of staff time in the total because those
salaries would have been paid to assistant city attorneys anyway.
Between 2004 and now, there were 79 lawsuits alleging St.
Paul police misconduct or excessive force that were resolved, according to the
city attorney's office. Forty-two of those lawsuits were settled. Seventeen
lawsuits resulted in a judgment in favor of the city, 18 were dismissed, and
two were closed.
Titus questioned why some cases are being settled and said
the city attorney's office should be more aggressive in defending the city.
But Grewing said her office must decide cases in the best
interests of the city as a whole. The rising cost of attorney fees is always a
factor, Grewing said.
"If a jury would find that a city is even liable for a
dollar of damages, then that (plaintiff's) lawyer is entitled to a reasonable
amount of attorney's fees," she said. If someone suing the city has
significant injuries, Grewing said, and "we know a jury's going to find in
the plaintiff's favor ... if we're looking at a $300,000 attorney's-fee bill,
we make that calculation."
Lantry said it's important to look at settlements in the
context of other cities.
How does St. Paul compare with Minneapolis? In 2011,
Minneapolis paid an average of about $239,000 in 17 lawsuits with an
officer-conduct-related claim, compared with an average of about $70,000 in
five cases claiming misconduct in St. Paul. In 2012, Minneapolis paid an
average of about $46,000 in 16 cases, while St. Paul's average was more than
$113,000 for eight cases.
While St. Paul's two largest settlements in cases alleging
police misconduct have each been $400,000, Minneapolis agreed in May to pay $3
million to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of a man who died after an
altercation with police in 2010. A record-setting settlement came in 2007, when
Minneapolis paid $4.5 million to an officer who was working undercover when
another officer mistook him for an assailant and shot him.
A 'VIDEO WORLD'
St. Paul doesn't admit liability when it settles a lawsuit
"A lot of the settlements are risk assessment: What are
the chances we can win? What will the jury say? How will the public view the
case?" Lantry said. Lantry, who attends all settlement conferences, said
she's never left one feeling the officers were clearly in the wrong.
The city attorney's office sends memos to all city
departments at the conclusion of lawsuits, which include recommendations for
any changes. Grewing said they're confidential under attorney-client privilege,
so she can't specify what suggestions have been made, but sometimes they
recommend changes to training.
All Minnesota officers must undergo annual training in the
use of force. St. Paul police have always had more training than required and
have had even more in recent years, said Cmdr. Mary Nash, who heads the
department's training unit.
Included in this year's training for all St. Paul police was
diversity awareness and a class called Law Enforcement Active Diffusion
Strategies.
About 50 percent of the class teaches officers to verbally
defuse tense situations, said Kevin Dillon, who created the class. Dillon, a
retired Wethersfield, Conn., police lieutenant, said the class stresses good
communication.
"We believe this will reduce the litigation aspect as
well," Dillon said. "Most of the time people sue because of the way
they're treated, not because of mistakes that are made."
Though the focus of the class is "reinforcing that calm
breeds calm," Nash said that's not always possible.
"Keep in mind that police encounter more resistance and
defiance today than probably ever before," said Nash, a St. Paul police
officer for almost 25 years.
She pointed to national statistics of officers killed and
assaulted. Around the country, 47 law enforcement officers were
"feloniously killed in the line of duty" in 2012, compared with 72
officers in 2011 and 56 officers in 2010, according to the FBI. There was a 2.4
percent increase nationally in assaults on officers from 2010 to 2011.
Also, in today's "video world," when almost
everyone has a camera on their cellphone, police find that people may be more
likely to "bait" officers to get a reaction on video, Nash said. But
part of recent training taught officers "that people can and will film us
but not to get sucked into a confrontation," Nash said. "Get caught
doing the right thing -- respect breeds respect."
One recent case captured on video in St. Paul: last August's
arrest of Eric Hightower. In a bystander's video, posted to YouTube, an officer
kicked Hightower while he was on the ground.
A newly released squad car video shows an officer, Matthew
Gorans, using pepper spray on Hightower while he was handcuffed in the back of
a squad car. Prosecutors who reviewed the case and declined to file charges
against either officer said Hightower was resisting getting into the squad car
and Gorans was working to get him in.
Gorans was also involved in the 2010 arrest of a man that
led to a lawsuit settled last year for $249,000; Smith disciplined him for
using excessive force in that case.
After an internal affairs investigation into Hightower's
arrest, sources say Smith decided to fire Gorans. But Gorans remains listed as
an officer and is appealing Smith's decision.
Seamus Mahoney, Hightower's attorney, said he's planning to
file a federal lawsuit in the case shortly.
"Having seen the video and knowing the outcome of the
internal affairs report, clearly even the department recognizes the officers
were in the wrong in the way they treated Mr. Hightower so liability is
clear," Mahoney said. "The issue will just be what the damages
are."
Grewing said she couldn't comment on a lawsuit she hasn't
seen.
Mara H. Gottfried can be reached at
mgottfried@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5262. Follow her at
twitter.com/MaraGottfried or twitter.com/ppUsualSuspects. MaryJo Webster can be
reached at mwebster@pioneerpress. com or 651-228-5507. Follow her at
twitter.com/mndatamine. Frederick Melo can be reached at fmelo@pioneerpress.com
or 651-228-2172. Follow him at twitter.com/FrederickMelo.
LAWSUITS AGAINST THE ST. PAUL POLICE DEPARTMENT
Search lawsuits alleging police misconduct by either the
year closed or the disposition (settled, judgement for city, etc). Or simply
click "Search" button to see all cases. The graphic that appears will
display the average costs per year for only the cases that are displayed.
The former Chief of Police of Crestview, Brian Mitchell, was
arrested Thursday on one count of official misconduct.
These charges allege that Mitchell, while Chief, either
falsified or caused to be falsified various documents related to the hiring of
Joseph Floyd.
Mitchell was released on a 5,000 dollar bond.
