San Jose student reaches settlement with city in civil rights case (police brutality caught on video

Source: San Jose Mercury News

Two years after a San Jose student's violent and secretly videotaped arrest sparked community outrage, Phuong Ho has reached a legal settlement with the city, according to sources and an attorney for an officer who was fired for his part in the controversial bust. The settlement, which one source said was $225,000, must still be approved by a city council vote.

In a federal lawsuit filed last year, Phuong Ho alleged the police violated his civil rights by using excessive force.

Phuong Ho, who is here from Vietnam studying to be an actuary, contended police had no reason to strike him with a metal baton more than a dozen times and use a Taser against him when they came to question him about an alleged threat in 2009.

He had originally demanded $6 million in damages.

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/rss/ci_18044997

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Ho, a Vietnamese national, was interviewed about the incident in 2009. It happened after a dinnertime argument, and his roommate called police. Ho wasn't armed and got restrained and Tased simply after reaching for his glasses. According to then-SJPD chief Rob Davis, an officer even kept whipping a handcuffed Phuong Ho with baton!

Bowman added: "It's a paltry settlement in light of what he sued for, so that tells you a lot right there."


It also tells you a lot that your scumbag client is a former officer trying to get his job back. So, that tells you a lot.

That beaten dude should've taken the city to the cleaners just to shut his lawyer up.