Baton Rouge BLM Protest Arrest Settlement to Offer Cash, Expungement

A Louisiana federal judge has granted final approval to a class action settlement over allegations police violated the civil rights of dozens of protestors in Baton Rouge following the July 5, 2016 fatal shooting by a Baton Rouge police officer of Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man.

The 2016 killing was one of many high-profile shootings of black men by police officers in the United States, which led to many protests nationwide associated with the Black Lives Matter movement.

Nearly 200 people were arrested at the Baton Rouge protests. Plaintiffs DeRay McKesson, Kira Marrero and Gloria La Riva filed the lawsuit against the City of Baton Rouge, East Baton Rouge Parish and several Parish officials, the Superintendent of the Louisiana State Police and the District Attorney for the 19th Judicial District in East Baton Rouge Parish.

The plaintiffs accused the defendants of misconduct and claim they used excessive force against people who gathered in Baton Rouge to exercise their First Amendment rights to peacefully assemble.

The Baton Rouge protests class action settlement, which is valued at about $136,000, was approved last week by U.S. District Judge John deGravelles.

“It is obviously a matter that touches on a lot of sensitive issues and had the potential for being very contentious and destructive,” deGravelles said about the Baton Rouge protests class action lawsuit.

Class Members of the Baton Rouge BLM settlement include protestors who were arrested on charges of obstructing a highway. A district attorney in Baton Rouge later announced that he would not prosecute nearly 100 protestors who had been charged with this offense.

“All of the proposed class members now have criminal arrest records, which in this digital age could adversely affect their future employment, education, reputations, and professional licensing,” the plaintiffs wrote in their August motion in support of the BLM protest class action settlement. They argued that, without this settlement, each Class Member would have to go through the expungement process to remove the arrest from their criminal record.

Eligible Class Members are entitled to cash payments ranging from $500 to $1,000, as well as a free expungement of the obstruction of highway charge. Class Members who were in custody for one or two days will receive $500, those who were in custody for three days will receive $750 and those who were in custody for more than three days will receive $1,000.

The BLM protest class action settlement was preliminarily approved in May.

Top Class Actions will post updates to this class action settlement as they become available. For the latest updates, keep checking TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free newsletter. You can also receive notifications when this article is updated by using your free Top Class Actions account and clicking the “Follow Article” button at the top of the post.

The plaintiffs are represented by Roy J. Rodney Jr. and John K. Etter of Rodney & Etter LLC.

The Baton Rouge BLM Protests Class Action Lawsuit is DeRay McKesson, et al. v. City of Baton Rouge, et al., Case No 3:16-cv-00520-JWD-EWD, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana.