FERGUSON, Mo. – After nine years of litigation, a $4.5 million class action lawsuit was preliminarily approved by a judge against the City of Ferguson Tuesday.
A lawsuit was filed in 2015, a year after police shot and killed Michael Brown, which sparked national attention. The lawsuit accuses the City of Ferguson of consistently violating constitutional rights and putting individuals in jail without a proper legal process, according to a release.
Over 15,000 people who were put in jail between Feb. 8, 2010, and Dec. 30, 2022, will receive a check for financial compensation. Amounts will vary based on the number of hours spent in the Ferguson jail.
Nine plaintiffs served as the case’s representatives. In the span of litigation, two of those plaintiffs died. Keilee Fant, former lead plaintiff, was incarcerated by the City of Ferguson over 12 times over the course of 20 years due to an inability to pay.
“I’m still affected; it has taken a lot out of me. It was so inhumane that people couldn’t believe it when it actually did go on,” Fant said in 2022.
Tonya DeBerry, another plaintiff, died in 2018, and her daughter says she never “got a piece of this justice.”
59-year-old Ronnie Tucker was arrested in 2013 for a municipal ordinance warrant. Tucker said employees of the Ferguson Jail told him he would not be released until he paid hundreds of dollars for his release. He alleged he was unable to pay the fine; no inquiry was made regarding his ability to pay; and there was no access to an attorney. According to a release, “These circumstances were not unusual for other named plaintiffs and thousands of individuals impacted by the City of Ferguson’s practices.”
Once the settlement is approved by the court, checks will be mailed to class members based on their last known address.
In a release from ArchCity Defenders, one of the case’s four litigants, the City of Ferguson has denied the allegations within the lawsuit.
