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Teen settles lawsuit over forcible arrest by Lansing police

Scott Rodgerson
/
Unsplash

Updated on April 25 at 5:15 p.m. ET

A teenager is settling a lawsuit after alleging that Lansing Police violated her rights during a forcible arrest.

Lansing agreed to pay Reed $7,500, according to copy of the settlement agreement provided by the city.

DeShaya Reed sued the city last year over a 2019 arrest that happened when she was 16.

The lawsuit claimed police used excessive force and discriminated against Reed, who is Black, because of her race. The case was closed this month, court records show.

Video of the arrest posted to social media showed an officer repeatedly punching Reed in the leg as the handcuffed teen extended and kicked that leg to keep the door of a police cruiser from closing.

The officer wrote in a police report that she struck Reed in an attempt to get the car door to close after the teen ran away from police.

Officers had tried to take Reed into custody after responding to a call about an argument and determining that Reed had been "on the run" for failing to attending classes at the Ingham County Youth Academy, according to the lawsuit in Ingham County Circuit Court.

As a result of the arrest, Reed sustained scrapes and bruises and suffered emotional distress, the suit said.

Following an internal investigation, the city mandated a three-day unpaid suspension plus additional training for Lindsay Howley, the officer who struck Reed. A second officer, Bailey Ueberroth, who assisted with the arrest, also got additional training.

Along with Howley and Ueberroth, the lawsuit listed Mike Yankowski, Lansing’s police chief in 2019, as a defendant. Judge James Jamo agreed earlier this year to dismiss Yankowski and the city of Lansing from the case.

In a statement Friday, Reed's attorney, Elizabeth Abdnour, wrote, "Ms. Reed is moving forward with her life and hopes that telling her story publicly helps keep other Black children safe from harm from LPD officers in the future."

Lansing officials provided a copy of the settlement agreement Monday after failing to provide a copy of it by WKAR's Friday deadline. WKAR also filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the document late Friday.

“This was a very unfortunate incident and we are glad that the city attorney was able to come to a mutually agreed upon settlement in this case," Lansing spokesman Scott Bean said in a statement Monday.

Sarah Lehr is a state government reporter for Wisconsin Public Radio.
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