On July 31, 2012, a New York resident who was arrested while participating in the Occupy Wall Street protests filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against the City of New York. The complaint was brought under 42 U.S.C. 1983 and alleged violations of the 1st, 4th and 14th amendments. The plaintiff, represented by private counsel, sought compensatory and punitive damages, as well as injunctive relief in the form of a permanent injunction requiring the City to comply with federal standards regarding the use of force by police.

Specifically, the New York resident alleged that while participating in a march near Union Square Park, New York Police Department officers deployed nets to surround participants, and used pepper spray and unreasonable force against them.

On November 13, 2012, the defendant requested that cases stemming from the same September 24, 2011 incident be consolidated. On November 30, 2012, the Court (Judge Robert W. Sweet) ordered that the cases be granted the motion and consolidated href="https://www.clearinghouse.net/detail.php?id=13708">Lawler v. City of New York and Elliot v. City of New York.

The parties reached a settlement agreement on July 8, 2015. The court entered the stipulation and dismissed the case on July 23, 2015, retaining jurisdiction over the matter for the purpose of enforcing the agreement for an undisclosed amount of time.

The details of the settlement are not publicly available. According to The New York Times, the defendant paid a total of $332,500 in damages (between $52,000 to $60,000 to each plaintiff). Additionally, the New York Times reports that the NYPD released a statement saying that the NYPD has not altered its pepper spray guidelines. The case is now closed.

Maurice Youkanna - 05/27/2014
Sean Mulloy - 11/06/2017


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