HOBOKEN — Earlier this month, the Hoboken Police Department paid a $7,500 settlement to a Hoboken resident who claimed that in 2007, he walked into the Police Department to ask questions about an “incident” that had happened the night before (which is not explained in the court documents; nor is the plaintiff’s involvement or interest in the incident explained). The plaintiff claimed that he was allegedly harassed and thrown down some steps by a police officer. The judgment does NOT say that the police mentioned were guilty, but the department agreed to settle the case for $7,500. The plaintiff had hoped to get a million dollars. The settlement amount was ordered on March 9, 2010 to be paid.
Court documents here.
The case was talked about on a Libertarian blog this past Sunday. Two days later, the same blog talked about another case from two years ago that wasn’t really covered (or realized) by the media, so here are the details: A Guttenberg man sued the Hoboken police for allegedly being unfairly arrested, and won $125,000, which was paid, according to court documents.
Here’s the link to the blog.
The blog notes: “While summary judgment was decided in [the plaintiff]’s favor, it is possible that that ruling would have been overturned had the appeal been decided. All that is known for sure is that Hoboken or its insurer, for whatever reason, decided that it would rather pay [the plaintiff] $125,00 than take the matter to trial. Perhaps the defendants’ decision to settle was done to save further legal expense and the costs of trying what were in fact exaggerated or meritless claims. Or, perhaps the claims were true and the defendants wanted to avoid being embarrassed at trial. This is the problem when cases settle before trial–it is impossible to know the truth of what really happened.”