On September 5, 2001, Adam Ingles filed this pro se lawsuit pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Plaintiff eventually obtained counsel (attorneys from Legal Aid Society of Brooklyn and Emery Celli) the case was amended to add 21 additional plaintiffs and to assert class action allegation. The District Court (Judge Denny Chin) granted class certification was granted on February 20, 2003. Ingles v. City of New York, 2003 WL 402565 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 20, 2003). Plaintiffs amended their complaint several times, with the Fourth Amended Complaint being filed on August 25, 2003.
Plaintiffs alleged that they were subjected to a pattern and practice of excessive force by uniformed employees of the New York City Department of Correction ("DOC"), while incarcerated at institutions operated by DOC
on Rikers Island and in Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx. Plaintiffs sought declaratory and injunctive relief on behalf of the class, as well as damages for their individual injuries.
After the parties engaged in massive discovery, during which some 400,000 pages of documents were exchanged, settlement negotiations commenced under the supervision of Magistrate Judge Debra C. Freeman
The parties entered into a private settlement agreement, which resolved the class claims for equitable relief. The Agreement called for reforms to the DOC's use of force policy, investigations, training, and monitoring and tracking. The Agreement called for the City to pay attorneys fees and costs in the amount of $1.45 million to two private law firms, with the firms and Legal Aid agreeing to waive further fees and costs. The Agreement was approved by the District Court (Judge Chin) on April 3, 2006.
By a separate stipulation signed on February 17, 2006, the parties settled the named plaintiffs' individual claims for damages for amounts that ranged from $15,000 to $575,000 and totaled $2,213.000.
On April 4, 2006, the District Court entered an order of dismissal with prejudice.
Dan Dalton - 02/10/2007
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