Sunday, December 16, 2001
Alleged actions often end in big settlements
These are the top five settlements made by the City of Cincinnati to resolve alleged police misconduct cases since 1990.
Amount: $700,000 to Robert and Mary Wittenberg in 2001.
Summary: Mr. Wittenberg alleged he suffered a fractured spine and ribs, punctured lung, bruises and lacerations when Officer Robert Hill tackled him at a Madisonville United Dairy Farmers in November 1999. Mr. Wittenberg, an Alzheimer's patient from Silverton, entered the store muttering and carrying a drill. Officer Hill was called to the scene on a report of a man threatening store patrons. The Wittenbergs sought $2.5 million in damages.
Amount: $200,000 to Doris Floyd, mother of Lorenzo Collins, in 2000.
Summary: Mr. Collins, a 25-year-old Avondale man with a history of mental illness, was shot in 1997 after he escaped from a mental ward at University Hospital and threatened police with a brick. Cincinnati Officer Douglas Depodesta and a University of Cincinnati officer both fired twice, hitting Mr. Collins three times. He died five days later.
Amount: $200,000 to Steven Fisher of Batavia in 1992.
Summary: Mr. Fisher, a newspaper carrier, was arrested and charged with negligent vehicular homicide in 1989, after a car driven by off-duty Cincinnati Police Officer Kevin Schroeder crossed the center line on Beechmont Avenue and killed Mr. Fisher's passenger, Thomas C. Wood Jr., 17. Mr. Fisher was seriously injured. His attorney argued that police covered up evidence that Officer Schroeder was intoxicated and had caused the crash. Charges against Mr. Fisher were dropped.
Amount: $160,000 paid to 32 members of the Muslim Mosque on North Bend Road in 1992.
Summary: Members of the Muslim Mosque sued in July 1990 after learning that members of the Cincinnati Police Intelligence unit used illegal wiretaps to monitor mosque member activities from 1968 through 1974. The surveillance was exposed when two Cincinnati Bell workers sued the company for wrongful dismissal. Members of the mosque received settlements of $5,000 each.
Amount: $127,500 paid to a Winton Place woman, her 6- and 7-year old daughters and a 15-year-old niece in 2001.
Summary: The woman, who was identified only by initials in the lawsuit, claimed that masked Cincinnati police officers had the wrong place when they barged into her home, handcuffed her and her niece, and tore up the residence looking for a man named “Toby.” The woman also accused police of refusing to remove her handcuffs so she could clean herself after she defecated in her pants. Instead, police permitted the woman's 6-year-old daughter to take care of her mother's hygiene in view of male officers.
— Sheila McLaughlin
City pays for police lawsuits
Bridging two worlds
Forest Park offers lifestyle, diversity
Speaking up when racism is overt
Connections factor in judge selection
City pays for police lawsuits
Alleged actions often end in big settlements
A towering dilemma
Answers to killing elude family
Churches remember holiday lows
Holiday shopping crimes low, but police advise wariness
Islamic youth group delivers donated goods
Preschool starts kids on English
Tristate A.M. Report
Walter Zimmer Sr., Cincinnati, Navy firefighter, dies
While the work goes on, the emotions linger
BRONSON: Osama's video
HOWARD: Some Good News
PULFER: Can-Do Kids
Mason pool raises admission price
Area targets teen substance abuse
Bill may aid poor women
Covington bishop to go south
Kentucky News Briefs
