88 people awarded $3.5 million by NJ judge for being arrested by dirty cops

I originally published this Jan. 11, 2013 in my discontinued column on Examiner.com.

The city of Camden, New Jersey has been found liable for the path of destruction caused by a group of rogue dirty cops who beat confessions out of suspects, and planted evidence. A U.S. Magistrate awarded $3.5 million to a group of 88 plaintiffs, who all, at some point or the other, had contact with the disband group of officers.

Joel Schneider, U.S. Magistrate, ruled the settlement be paid no later than February 15, but the case is not closed completely. State Community Affairs Commissioner, Robert E. Constable III, is allowed up to 10 days to veto the settlement, which would trigger a whole new round of legal battles. The SCA office has an official 'no comment' on the ruling, and likely will allow the settlement to stand.

Under New Jersey state law, individuals are owed $20,000 for each year that they are wrongfully incarcerated.

According to the local reporting of philly.com, all 88 plaintiffs in the federal case spent over 100 years in jail, wrongly convicted, which works out to about $2.2 million under the state formula.

Lawyers are still determining how to fairly distribute the funds.

Thank you for reading. Please browse my other posts to read more of my original crime reports that I am only republishing on Steemit.