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A Northwestern University PhD graduate has reached a $1.25million (£960,000) settlement with the City of Evanston, Illinois, after he was arrested and allegedly beaten for “stealing” his own car.
Dr Lawrence Crosby’s arrest was captured on a police dashcam video and it showed the doctor, then a student, arrested after a woman saw him trying to fix a loose part on his car and concluded he was a thief.
Timothy Touhy, his lawyer, revealed the settlement amount to the Chicago Tribune newspaper. However, it will have to be approved by city council members in an open session next week.
In a press conference about the shocking event that happened back in 2015, Dr Crosby said:
It’s not easy for me to go back to the situation. I don’t know if I’m ever going to get over that in my lifetime.
Dr Crosby admitted he spent that past three years trying to clear his name of a crime, and he was acquitted last week.
The police eventually charged him with disobeying a police officer and resisting arrest, but he was later acquitted of both charges.
He added:
At that moment in time I did not know whether I would make it through the end of the night facing however many weapons pointed at me.
Dr Crosby no longer lives in Evanston, but will be returning to his alma mater at Stanford University to lead a forum, where he will seek to "identify and reverse the ill effects of implicit bias".
My goal is to try to use the voice that I have to bring awareness to this issue and hopefully inspire other people.
After the settlement was announced, the city said in a statement:
The settlement is a compromise of disputed claims and the parties have not admitted liability or validity of any defence in the litigation.
You can see footage of the dashcam below:
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