A lawyer who won Oakland residents millions of dollars in police misconduct lawsuit settlements and a federal consent decree ordering tougher supervision of city police, says the city is still not monitoring officer conduct sufficiently, the Oakland Tribune reports. John Burris, the attorney, made the comments after a federal jury awarded one of his clients $5 million in damages last week.
“This was another example of unsupervised officers,” said the plaintiff’s attorney, John Burris. “There was no supervision.” Burris was co-counsel in the so-called “Riders Case,” a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city that claimed a group of Oakland officers had planted evidence on suspects, treated them brutaly and engaged in a host of other civil rights violations. The suit was settled for $10 million in payments to 119 plaintiffs. The city also agreed to tighten hiring, promotion, supervision and disciplinary procedures for Oakland police officers.
Link: http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/ci_7630976