Bathroom-break police shooting brings $40K settlement

[Liberal_in_LA]

Bathroom-break police shooting brings $40K settlement

An Oakland man who said he was urinating in a yard when a police officer shot him in the leg for no reason is expected to receive $40,000 to settle a federal civil rights suit against the city.

Darrell Curry said he had been socializing with friends around midnight Aug. 9, 2007, and was "in the process of relieving himself" in the side yard of a home at 838 Milton St. in West Oakland when he heard someone say, "He's got a gun!"

Curry said he was then shot in the leg without warning by an officer, later identified as Michael Valle.

The city said Curry matched the description of a felon on probation whom an informant had identified as a drug dealer packing a semiautomatic handgun in his waistband. Valle saw Curry making a motion "as if he was bringing a gun up from his waistband" and pointing it in the direction of the officer, Senior Deputy City Attorney Arlene Rosen wrote in court documents.

The officer saw Curry throw a "heavy, shiny object high into the air," Rosen wrote. No gun was found, but officers recovered a plastic bag containing 72 individually wrapped pieces of rock cocaine, according to the city.

Curry's attorney, Ben Nisenbaum, denied that the drugs belonged to his client. As for Curry throwing an object, "that did not happen," Nisenbaum said.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/crime/detail?entry_id=64107&tsp=1#ixzz0oas0dy00

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

1. Too small by two zeros. -nt

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

2. Maybe the cop could serve community service during Bay to Breakers

[Buns_of_Fire]

3. "...as if he was bringing a gun up from his waistband"

Or from his Official James Bond Zipperholster (TM)?

"Alright, drop the weapon!"

"Whaaaaat?"

[DavidDvorkin]

4. So he was shot for having an immense organ

The rest of us men should just be satisfied with what Nature gave us.