Thursday, January 22, 2009

Man Wins $20,000 Against Detroit Officer Who Squeezed His Genitals

A Wayne County man who said a Detroit Police officer groped him during a 2006 search settled a lawsuit against the city today for $20,000, an amount city officials say was not an admission of guilt but a way to end the case as cheaply as possible.

The suit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan for Elvis Ware, said Ware was stopped at a gas station in May 2006 when officers Michael Parish and Michael Osman approached him and questioned him about drugs. Ware claimed he was removed from his car, handcuffed and then searched by Parish. Ware claimed Parish shoved his bare hand down his pants and squeezed his genitals.

Ware’s suit had been scheduled for trial today in U.S. District Court in Detroit. Acting city corporation counsel Krystal Crittendon said the city could have been ordered to pay fees for Ware’s lawyers if it lost the case.

“The officers didn’t do anything wrong,” Crittendon said, adding that Parish and Osman both were investigated by Detroit police and federal authorities. “The officers were cleared,” she said.

The ACLU – which had refused to disclose the settlement amount – said as part of its settlement the city agreed to read search procedures to officers at roll call one day a month for three months.

Ware, 36, has no criminal record and was an Army veteran of Operation Desert Storm, said ACLU lawyer Mark Fancher. Fancher said the officers who stopped Ware are still on the force.

Ware said today he did not report the incident to Detroit Police because “I didn’t trust them.”

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