Austin to pay $99K to settle California man's lawsuit against police officers
Rather than proceed to trial in February, Austin city leaders have agreed to resolve a lawsuit by paying $99,000 to a California man who taken to the ground by an officer in an incident in downtown Austin in 2018.
The settlement was approved by the Austin City Council in a 10-1 vote Thursday. Council Member Mackenzie voted no without offering an explanation.
The money, which comes from the city's liability reserve, goes to plaintiff Michael Yeager, who in the lawsuit said he not only was falsely arrested — which led to him losing his job — but suffered lacerations that required 27 stitches. Yeager said he incurred a concussion, separated shoulder, broken nose and fractured thumb.
Yeager, who was living in San Antonio at the time, was charged with evading arrest and taken to the Travis County Jail. The charge was later dropped.
The officer Yeager accuses of inflicting the injuries, Dusty Jester, was not charged with a crime. Two additional officers were added to the case in an amended lawsuit. Yeager accused those officers, Timothy Skeen and Bradley Hoover, of not intervening in Jester's attack on him, and also accused Hoover of deploying a Taser (it didn't fire) and delivering two to three knee strikes to Yeager's ribs.
A police spokesperson said the incident was reviewed by the officers’ chain of command and by APD's Internal Affairs Division. No officer was formally disciplined at the conclusion of those reviews.
"This was a situation in which APD supervisors had signed off on blatantly unconstitutional conduct," said Yeager's lawyer, Jeff Edwards. "It is the sincere hope of Mr. Yeager and my law firm that the city and the new leadership of the Austin Police Department will reexamine the way their officers evaluate misconduct."
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Austin Police Association President Ken Casady said he was unfamiliar with the incident.
"I'm surprised by the settlement because the chief of police at the time didn't think officers violated policy or the law," he said.
The settlement amount was recommended by the city's legal department, which handled the case without outside counsel. Per the city charter, the council had to approve the settlement because the amount was more than $66,000.
The City Council's vote came and went without comments from any of the council members.
A city spokesperson said: "While we are not in a position to discuss the specifics of this case, the city routinely seeks to resolve all disputes in an appropriate and timely manner. Today’s council action to approve the settlement is part of that process.”
The American-Statesman requested video of the incident from the Police Department on Thursday. In response, a police spokesperson directed the Statesman to file an open records request.
Had the case gone to trial, a jury likely would have had to determine if Yeager's injuries were the result of Jester's actions or from a group of men Yeager had been in an altercation with. Court documents present contrasting narratives of the incident.
Yeager's lawyers say he was walking to his vehicle when he was attacked and robbed by a group of men. The city says the men attacked him in defense of a woman Yeager was hitting, an assertion the city says is supported by several witnesses.
Yeager says officers separated him from the men and walked him 30 yards away to obtain a statement from him. He said he was calm and cooperative and that his hands were in his pockets. The city says Yeager refused orders to get on the ground and began swearing at officers, at one point telling them he was an MMA fighter.
According to the city, Hoover had his Taser drawn toward Yeager, prompting Jester to run toward Yeager and attempt to take him to the ground. Hoover deployed the Taser, but it was ineffective, the city said. The city's explanation says that, after Yeager again refused orders to get on the ground, Jester and Yeager began swinging at each other. Jester struck Yeager three to five times, forcing Yeager to the ground.
The city says Yeager again refused to put his hands behind his back, and Jester struck him in the face and abdomen. Yeager rolled on top of Jester and began digging at Jester's eye socket with his thumb, the city said. Eventually three other officers arrived and were able to get Yeager handcuffed.
In the lawsuit, Yeager's lawyers wrote "Jester's conduct was shocking, objectively unreasonable, and plainly incompetent."
The city said the use of force was reasonable given Yeager's noncompliance and that all three officers are protected by qualified immunity.
Also in Thursday's meeting, the council voted to execute amended contracts with outside legal counsel to defend the city in two other lawsuits involving police use of force. Among them is a $100,000 payment, for a combined payment of up to $161,000, for representation in a case brought by Maredith Drake, a volunteer medic who was shot by an officer with a bean bag round during the 2020 social justice protests. In the second use of force case, which is unrelated to the protests, the city will pay an additional $83,000 for a total amount of $145,000 to outside lawyers.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin to pay $99K to settle California man's lawsuit against police officers
