More than seven years ago, law enforcement arrested nearly 400 people peaceably present in Washington, D.C.’s Pershing Park in an illegal mass false arrest during IMF/World Bank demonstrations. Now, in a class action settlement of protestor claims those arrestees are each entitled to up to $18,000 from the District of Columbia. This class action case has been litigated by the attorneys at the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund.
Claim forms must be filed by July 15, 2010! The time period for filing claims opened on April 30, 2010, and time is running out. Millions of dollars are available, but arrestees must file their claim forms—unclaimed funds will revert to the government. Please post this as widely as possible and help get the word out to everyone you know.
In addition to monetary payments, the arrest of class members will be expunged; each arrestee who participates in the settlement will receive a court order declaring his or her arrest to be legally null and void. There is also substantial equitable relief, changes in the law and to police policies and practices that have been achieved in the course of the litigation.
Please re-post this email to e-mail lists, web sites, Facebook pages or organizations where it may be viewed by potential class members. You can use the buttons below to forward this email or post it to Facebook or Twitter. There have been mass mailings to those listed as having been arrested and follow-up communications as well as additional publication in various media outlets notifying class members. However, we want to do as much as possible to get the word out.
The class is "all persons who were arrested in Pershing Park in the District of Columbia on September 27, 2002." There were protest-related arrests elsewhere on September 27, 2002 that are the subject of other suits. This settlement pertains only to the Pershing Park arrests.
The official website, established by the Class Administrator, is at www.PershingParkSettlement.com. Additional materials are available there, and answers to frequently asked questions will be posted there as questions are presented to the Administrator. If you have questions, please first read the Notice to Class Members, which is in Q & A format and answers many important questions about the settlement and the process. The Class Administrator has also set up a toll free number, 1-877-678-0736, in case you have questions that are not answered in the notice or on the web site.
Send this to everyone you know—get it on as many lists and Facebook pages as possible. Time is running out—get those claim forms in now!
The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) is a not-for-profit legal and educational organization which, among other things, seeks to ensure constitutional accountability within police practices. It has litigated class action lawsuits against the District of Columbia for the mass false arrests of more than 1,000 persons during First Amendment protected demonstrations. The PCJF won a unanimous ruling at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals finding the DC police's unprecedented military-style police checkpoint program unconstitutional. The PCJ previously uncovered and disclosed that the D.C. police employed an unlawful domestic spying and agent provocateur program in which officers were sent on long-term assignments posing as political activists and infiltrated lawful and peaceful groups. For more information and to sign up for updates and alerts go to: www.JusticeOnline.org.
