Not too long ago we reported Atlanta Hawks F Thabo Sefolosha was settling his lawsuit against the NYPD for unnecessarily assaulting him, resulting in a broken leg and an end to his NBA season last year. We didn’t know the exact terms of the deal, we just knew he’d won the case.
Details of the settlement have now been released.
Sporting News is reporting the NYPD will be paying Sefolosha a whopping $4 million for his troubles.
Sefolosha said in a statement, he’d be donating a portion of the winnings to public defender programs to help better train lawyers to defend those who can’t afford the best representation.
“I would like to thank my family and friends, Coach Bud (Mike Budenholzer) and the entire Atlanta Hawks organization, the NBA and the NBA Players Association, my agents Guy Zucker and Herman Manakyan, and my attorney throughout this process, Alex Spiro,” Sefolosha wrote, via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The support that I received over the past two years from each was invaluable and something that I will never forget.
“It is an extremely gratifying feeling to know that justice has been served and that now, finally, I can truly put this behind me. To fight for what is right and be fully exonerated and vindicated is both satisfying and very humbling.
“We are all aware that there are still too many cases of police brutality today. So many of these cases go unnoticed or unreported; so many victims do not have the means to fight for justice as I could. It’s unfair.
While I alone can’t bring the type of change needed to eliminate these issues, I want to help make a difference. A substantial portion of my settlement will be donated to Gideon’s Promise, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that helps support and train public defenders across the country.
“On their website, it reads ‘We are the voice for the voiceless.’ I hope my donation can help give many more people a voice to fight for justice as I did.”
Many police agencies are just plain out of control when dealing day-to-day with people in communities. No one is saying they’re perfect, they deal with a lot. Many officers are patrolling right this second dealing with burnout, problems at home, debt, any number of problems we deal with. The only difference is they’re also dealing with a lot of stressful things are work and that can come off when they talk to people. Although that may be ONE set of reasons for police brutality, it’s still no excuse. It’s on the departments to make sure their officers are trained and in the right mental state to do their job; which is to PROTECT & SERVE in case people forgot.
Hopefully more settlements like this will discourage certain behaviors putting police in a bad light. The way these officers dealt with Sefolosha from the beginning was wrong, and he’s justified in getting this money. Now, maybe this department will think twice next time when dealing with people.
Hopefully, anyways.