01/08/2014
$645,000 settlement in Occupy Oakland excessive force case
December 22, 2013
The plaintiff, Kayvan Sabeghi, was beaten with a baton by an Oakland Police "Tango Team" officer during the police actions that followed the Nov. 2, 2011, General Strike demonstration in support of Occupy Oakland. Sabeghi had been on his way home when he encountered a line of Alameda County Sheriffs blocking his path and verbally questioned the heavy police presence. OPD Officer Frank Uu struck plaintiff nine times, lacerating his spleen. Plaintiff was then arrested and booked into jail, although he was never charged with a crime. In the Alameda County Jail, it was 18 hours before an ambulance was called, by which time plaintiff was going into shock. Doctors were able to avoid removing his spleen but had to embolize the splenic artery to stop the internal bleeding, which caused permanent impairment to plaintiff's spleen function. Plaintiff is separately represented in a still ongoing state court lawsuit against Alameda County and Corizon Inc for the medical neglect and mistreatment in jail. NPAP members Rachel Lederman, Dennis Cunningham and Bobbie Stein represented Sabeghi in his federal civil rights case against the City of Oakland, Officer Frank Uu and his supervisors, for the OPD excessive force, Sabeghi v. Uu. The excessive force case has been settled for $645,000. This was a companion case to Campbell et al v. City of Oakland, which involved 12 other plaintiffs who were subjected to various types of excessive force during the fall, 2011, Occupy Oakland events, including being shot with "less lethal" impact munitions, bombed with explosive chemical agent grenades, or otherwise brutalized. The Campbell case settled in June, 2013, for $1,170,000 and significant stipulated injunctive relief and policy reforms.
http://www.nlg-npap.org/news