The city of Santa Monica has agreed to pay Black Lives Matter Los Angeles and others $2.3 million to end a class action accusing city police of wrongly arresting 368 people while breaking up an allegedly peaceful demonstration protesting the death of George Floyd during the tumultuous late spring and early summer of 2020.
On July 18, attorneys for BLM L.A. and the other plaintiffs in the action filed a motion, styled as a motion to certify class, asking a Los Angeles federal judge to sign off on their proposed settlement deal with the city of Santa Monica.
The lawsuit is just one of the lawsuits launched by BLM Los Angeles against southern California police agencies who responded to increasing unrest and riots across the U.S. in the wake of the death of George Floyd while in custody of police officers in Minneapolis.
BLM Los Angeles has also, for instance, launched a class action against the city of Los Angeles, accusing police there of excessive force in addressing protests in late May and June 2020. That legal action remains pending, after a federal judge rejected the city of L.A.'s bid to dismiss.
The Santa Monica case similarly accuses local police of overstepping their authority and using excessive force when attempting to disperse city-wide riots throughout Santa Monica May 31-June 1, 2020.
At that time, police also enforced a city-wide curfew in a bid to restore order. The plaintiffs in the case assert they were wrongly arrested, either while walking home or allegedly peacefully protesting.
The lawsuit was filed in 2021 against the city and its former Police Chief Cynthia Renaud.
Renaud stepped down in October 2020, taking retirement and a severance package reportedly worth $100,000 amid growing criticism of her department's handling of looting and arson at Santa Monica businesses amid the protests. According to published reports, public criticism accused Renaud and city officials of focusing too heavily on the actual protest and not enough on protecting businesses within the city.
In their lawsuit, plaintiffs assert Santa Monica Police arrested so many people at that time that police officers injured detainees while allegedly securing their arms with zip ties, only to use knives and other sharp objects to cut the restraints later.
According to court documents, nearly all of those arrested were released on a misdemeanor charge of violating curfew under the city's municipal code.
In response to the lawsuit, lawyers for the city filed an answer to the complaint, in which they asked the judge to dismiss the claims. However, the city never formally filed any motions to dismiss or any briefs mounting anything other than affirmative defenses against BLM's claims concerning police conduct in response to the unrest.
Lawyers for the city had notified the court that they had reached a tentative settlement deal in February and said at that time they planned to finalize the settlement in the next four months.
Under the deal presented in federal court on July 18, the city would pay a total of $2.3 million.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs would claim 30 percent of that total - or about $690,000 - as fees. Attorneys representing plaintiffs in the action include Erin Darling, of Los Angeles; Paul Hoffman and John Washington, of Schonbrun Seplow Harris Hoffman & Zeldes, of Culver City; and Carol A. Sobel and Weston Rowland, of the Law Office of Carol A. Sobel, of Santa Monica.
Sobel would be designate the settlement administrator, earning an additional fee of $23,000, according to the July 18 motion. That document indicates Sobel has also assisted with administration of class settlements under "earlier protest cases."
Out of the remaining amount, $1.6 million would be designated to pay people allegedly wrongly arrested during the Santa Monica unrest. According to the settlement motion, 368 people could each receive equal shares of that $1.6 million. According to the settlement motion, if 78 percent of class members participate in the settlement, they would each receive $5,600.
If all 368 participate, their share would be about $4,347.
"This is comparable to awards in past mass arrest cases in Los Angeles," the plaintiffs lawyers said in their settlement motion. "While Plaintiffs believe their claims are strong, their counsel concluded that a recovery of between $5,600 and $7,000 per class member is fair in view of the disputed nature of the claim and that all class members were released within a few hours."
If the case had gone to trial, the plaintiffs' lawyers said class members could have received less, given the disputed nature of their claims and applicability of the law to this case.
Lead named plaintiffs, likely including BLM Los Angeles, would receive $15,000 each for their role as class representatives.
In a statement, a Santa Monica city spokesperson confirmed the settlement and that it would be presented to the City Council, saying:
"The Santa Monica City Attorney's Office has reached a settlement agreement in the class action case Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, et al. v. City, et al for the amount of $2.3 million, including attorneys’ fees. The city is pleased to have come to an agreement to resolve this case.
"The Santa Monica Police Department handled the multitude of events in 2020 diligently, especially given the unprecedented and challenging circumstances at the time. Since then, the city and the Police Department have taken action to review the events that occurred and have implemented changes to improve emergency response to future incidents."