(Source: MIRS.news, Published 03/08/2024) The Michigan State Police has been ordered to pay $475,000 to six residents whose rights were violated when they attended an Americans with Disabilities event at the state Capitol in 2015.
Lead plaintiff, Paul Joseph Harcz Jr., who is blind and who is among those denied entry to the ADA event, will receive $50,000 while the remaining plaintiffs each receive $25,000. Their attorneys will receive $300,000, according to a corrected partial judgment order entered Thursday by U.S. District Judge Jane M. Beckering.
The judgment settles the lawsuit, except for plaintiff Terry Eagle’s claims, which will proceed. Eagle, who is blind, also was denied entry to the ADA event, and was falsely told it was a private event, according to the 2017 lawsuit.
Shanon Banner, an MSP spokesperson, said the department “made no admission of liability or constitutional violation” when entering the resolution.
“The MSP and the State of Michigan assert this resolution was entered into for the sole and exclusive purpose of resolving a dispute between the parties in a way to avoid the costs and productivity loss of further litigation,” she said.
Harcz was arrested Sept. 17, 2015, after a scuffle with police when he attempted to cross a police barricade on the state Capitol lawn to enter the 25th anniversary celebration, which he helped plan by serving on the accommodations committee.
Harcz, then 63, was charged with a two-year felony of resisting and obstructing police, but then-Ingham County prosecutor Gretchen Whitmer’s office dismissed the charges minutes before trial was to begin in August 2016.
News media reported at the time that Whitmer, who had been appointed prosecutor after Stuart Dunnings was ousted due to prostitution-related charges, made the decision "after reviewing the file, viewing a videotape of the incident and discussing the case" with an assistant prosecutor handling the case.
Harcz and others from his group sued individual police officers, the Capitol facilities director, Michigan Association of Centers for Independent Living (MACIL) and Handicapper Advocacy Alliance Inc. (HAAI) in U.S. District Court's Western Division alleging First and Fourteenth Amendment violations
