Legal Aid Society
hamburger

News

LAS Secures $750K Settlement for Client Shackled During Labor by NYPD

The Legal Aid Society, along with co-counsel Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP, announced a $750,000 settlement on a lawsuit brought on behalf of a 22-year-old New York City woman, “Jane Doe,” who was arrested when she was more than 40 weeks pregnant, on an investigative card for a minor, later-dismissed charge, and handcuffed and shackled during labor and after she gave birth to her newborn son, reports CNN.

In addition, Ms. Doe requested, and the New York City Police Department agreed, that the NYPD will conduct “roll call” training to all NYPD officers regarding its policies on the use of restraints on pregnant persons.

“The first breath that this baby had on this earth was one born out of violence. That was violence, what the NYPD did to her,” said Anne Oredeko, Supervising Attorney of the Racial Justice Unit at The Legal Aid Society. “This lawsuit was meant as a way to give her some type of solace, but there’s no repairing that — money will never repair that. And she cannot get that moment back.”