LL: City ready to settle Pershing Park case

Loose Lips reports that the city is preparing to settle the lawsuit stemming from the false arrests of 400 people by Metropolitan Police in Pershing Park in September 2002:

Yesterday, the Pershing Park police misconduct case went back in front of U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who chewed out the District in August for failing to produce key documents. According to Mike Scarcella at Legal Times, he’s calmed down over the city’s discovery failings, but not much. Sullivan ’said he will not “forego and forget” penalties against the District that could include contempt proceedings and monetary sanctions….[H]is primary concern is fixing the city’s document retention and production system.’ AG Peter Nickles told Sullivan that the city cases before him ‘are a “disaster” and reflect poorly on “all of us.”‘ Replied Sullivan: ‘Not on the court.’ As for the case itself, Nickles, citing ‘two important breakthroughs,’ expects a settlement by Thanksgiving.

The notorious mass arrests in 2002 led Kathy Patterson, then the Ward 3 D.C. Council member, to introduce the "First Amendment Rights and Police Standards Act of 2004," which was passed in early 2005. That bill was championed by ACLU of the National Capital Area and backed by GLAA. Ms. Patterson received GLAA's Distinguished Service Award in 2003.