This civil rights case is related to the treatment of “Occupy Oakland” protestors by the police and sheriff’s department in Oakland, CA. The plaintiffs brought this class action lawsuit on January 14, 2013 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against police officers and the City of Oakland, as well as the Alameda County sheriff and corrections officers. The plaintiffs sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, seeking damages, declaratory relief, and injunctive relief to protect their constitutional rights. They claimed that the defendants had violated their rights under the Fourteenth Amendment and state law by holding them in jail following the mass arrest of plaintiffs without a chance to disperse.
On January 28, 2012, the plaintiffs attended an “Occupy Oakland” march. As they marched, they alleged that they were corralled by the police, never given an opportunity to disperse, and placed under mass arrest. While corralled, the “class members were pushed, clubbed, and driven into a shrinking space by these two advancing lines.” Instead of being issued citations, class members were sent to the county jail. The plaintiffs alleged that they were kept in inhumane and humiliating conditions during this time. They were released between 12 and 85 hours later and were not charged.
Following an alternative dispute resolution phone conference, the case was referred to Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler. On November 21, 2014, the motion for preliminary approval of the Class Action settlement was denied due to issues with the settlement itself (the original settlement contained an error in class definition, the scope of the release was impermissibly broad, undeliverable funds were not allocated, and attorney’s fees were not properly handled) as well issues as the class notification. These issues were mostly fixed; District Judge Nathanael Cousins certified the class and granted preliminary approval of the settlement agreement on January 5, 2015, with issues in class notification corrected later. The class consisted of “the approximately 360 people who were arrested in the mass arrest on Broadway between 23rd and 24th Streets in Oakland on January 28, 2012, and who were never charged with any crime related to this arrest." 2015 WL 65501.
Under the settlement, the defendants agreed to pay $1,360,000 to the plaintiffs, including attorney’s fees and costs, and to seal and destroy the arrest records and biological samples from the mass arrest. The case against the individual defendants was dismissed on April 7, 2015 by Judge Cousins as part of the settlement agreement. On July 30, 2015, Judge Cousins issued an order granting a supplemental order of exoneration and to seal and destroy arrest records. The case is now closed, having had no activity since July 30, 2015.
While this case did not yield injunctive relief, another case did. On September 9, 2019, a court approved a settlement agreement in the similar case of
Spalding v. City of Oakland, under which the Oakland Police Department and the Alameda Sheriff’s Office adopted new policies regarding crowd control and mass arrests.
Samuel Poortenga - 09/19/2020
compress summary
