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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A Los Angeles filmmaker who was severely injured when he was shot at close range with a projectile during a street demonstration four years ago has received a $1.5 million settlement from the city, lawyers said Friday.
Attorneys said the payout to Benjamin Montemayor is the largest yet to arise from lawsuits accusing the Los Angeles Police Department of excessive force during protests in the wake of George Floyd's in-custody killing by Minneapolis police in 2020.
Montemayor had been protesting on Hollywood Boulevard for several hours on June 2, 2020, when at least 50 police officers descended upon his group and began firing munitions at the crowd, according to his civil rights lawsuit filed in Los Angeles federal court.
Within minutes and without provocation, Officer Henry Felix shot Montemayor in the groin with a 40mm foam projectile causing such severe damage that it required a surgical procedure to reattach portions of his genitals, plaintiff's attorney David Clay Washington said.
"The LAPD's response to demonstrations was chaotic and excessive in 2020, and despite independent investigations and dozens of lawsuits, it remains that way today," Washington said in a statement.
"This settlement compensates Mr. Montemayor for his pain and suffering. It also puts the public on notice of the harm associated with a police department that persistently violates the rights of Angelenos and fails to report catastrophic uses of force. Hopefully this outcome will serve as a clarion call to our elected officials that enough is enough."
An LAPD spokesman said previously that the department had assigned internal affairs investigators to review use-of-force allegations stemming from the street protests.
"There is an ongoing need for the LAPD to answer for their malfeasant conduct against demonstrators," Montemayor said in a statement.
"I believe this case acts as a building block for others to continue challenging institutionalized violence. This settlement shows that there are repercussions for police misconduct against the people they have sworn to protect. If financial restitution is one of the only languages a broken system speaks, then we must make it speak in volumes until the sound is inescapable: everyday citizens' rights are not just theoretical concepts."
The lawsuit said the weapon used against Montemayor is a "pain compliance tool that fires kinetic energy impact munitions intended to incapacitate aggressive, noncompliant individuals and can result in serious bodily injury or death."
Montemayor was neither aggressive nor noncompliant, according to the suit, which alleged excessive force and civil rights violations.
The plaintiff's attorney said that the LAPD's Use of Force Review Board found its officers' actions against Montemayor to be within department policy.