CA Police Department Pays $650K To Settle Brutality Claims

None of the five plaintiffs were ever charged and their arrests have been expunged

Barely four months after five men filed a lawsuit accusing Twin Rivers Unified School District police officers of brutality and false arrest, the district has paid $650,000 to settle the matter.

In their suit, the plaintiffs claimed they were arrested on Sept. 17, 2010, in North Highlands for no reason and taken to the district police station, where one officer allegedly choked three of them. They were all eventually jailed, but the District Attorney's Office declined to file any charges against them.

The suit also accused the district's top managers of fostering a toxic climate within its police force, which has drawn widespread community criticism for its enforcement tactics and became the focus of a grand jury investigation.