Pepper-sprayed UC Davis students awarded $1 mln

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Published time: September 26, 2012 17:23
Edited time: September 26, 2012 21:23

Pepper-sprayed UC Davis students awarded $1 mln

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College students and alumni that were injured when a police officer at the University of California, Davis, discharged military-grade pepper-spray in their face during a peaceful protest last year will split a settlement of roughly $1,000,000.

Members of the UC Regents board agreed earlier this month on a settlement to be split among the 21 demonstrators targeted by a campus cop since removed from the force, but the final amount was not disclosed until now. The Sacramento Bee reports on Wednesday that the board had decided behind closed doors on a figure of roughly $1 million.

"We did an injustice to our students that day at Davis, and some amount of recompense is appropriate,” UC Davis student regent Jonathan Stein told the Los Angeles Times after their meeting earlier this month. “More importantly, it's time for us as an institution to publicly acknowledge that's not the way we should treat our students; we were wrong, and we are moving forward.”

The terms of the settlement were unsealed in federal court Wednesday morning and, assuming the appropriate papers are authorized by a federal judge, each of the 21 plaintiffs in the case are expected to receive $30,000, totaling $630,000 in all. Additional plaintiffs are invited to come forward and file claims in order to collect from a pool of $100,000 set aside for a class action suit, and $250,000 will be handed to the attorneys who handled the case.

Lt. John Pike, the officer who injured the protesters during a peaceful demonstration that was caught on tape and took the Internet by storm, was placed on paid administrative leave for several months after the November 18, 2011 sit-in on the Davis campus. Student and alumni had gathered at the school to protest rising tuition fees.

The internal affairs investigation alone into Lt. Pike’s actions cost the university $230,256.73, the Bee reports.

Comments (19)

Milan Moravek (unregistered) 29.09.2012 00:52

Over $1M dollars in administrative, consultant, legal expenses etc is spent by University of California senior management for the $1M pepper spray settlement. Californian tax payers shell out $2 million for the clueless decisions of the University of California senior management. Hapless UC senior management wasted two million dollars destined for the education of our in-state students. Prop 30, 32 funding will be spent by incompetent University of California senior management. It is up to the public to vote no on Prop 30, 32 to keep funding from the eminently unwise senior management at University of California.

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What-did-ya-expect-real-justice (unregistered) 28.09.2012 02:47

It was cheaper for UC to try and quiet the whole mess by working a deal with the students then fight the police Union. Once the police layers were done with draining the school they would have started on the city. Just that simple.

No justice served, only winners the lawyers. Sounds like back room deals with the city, let's just put up a Million now, not charge anyone with anything, not admit to anything and maybe we can just pretend it never happened until everyone forgets about it.

Punishm ent for the Chancellor: Write I will not abuse student once have her secretary make copies and send it out to all the students that she failed and put in harms way. Then sit get a pat on the back from the UC Board members for only havening to spend a Million to clean up the mess.

"Earlier this month, behind closed doors, the UC regents decided to approve the preliminary settlement. They also decided the payment will be made through the university’s self-insured General Liability Risk Program fund, which according to UC officials has around $600 million in reserves."

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Milan Moravec (unregistered) 28.09.2012 00:44

In addition to $1 million settlement incompetent University of California senior management incurred over $1 millon in legal and adm expenses: total cost to Californians $ 2 million. More examples of incompetent senior management at UC follow. Nobody’s perf ect, but some higher education chancellors are much less perfect as stewards of public funds than others. University of California Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau ($450,000) Provost Breslauer ($306,000) have forgotten they are steward’s of public money, not overseer of their own fiefdoms. Cal tuition triples last decade, Californians income went stagnant. UC Chancellor Birgenea u, Provost Breslauer do not have a grip on financial realities. Trust the evidence. Pays ex Michigan governor $300,000 for lectures Tuition increases exceed national average rate of increase. Univ ersity accrues $150 million of inefficiencies over last 8 years Recruits foreign students who pay $50,600 and displace qualified Californians. Spe nds $7,000,000 + for OE consultants to do the work of senior Cal. management. (Prominent East Coast University accomplishes same, 0 cost). In procuring $7,000,000 consulta nts failed to receive proposals from other firms. Best in nation rank: # 70 Forbes. Academic rank: Falls below top ten QS ranking Tuition to Return on Investment drops below top10. Cal now is most expensive public university for residence. Organi zational Effectiveness (OE): Birgeneau prevents OE from examining Chancellor’s, Provost’s operations for inefficiencies It ’s all shameful. There is no justification for such irregularities by stewards of the public trust. If Chancellor, Provost don’t understand financial stewardship they have no business being Cal. senior management.

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