Above: Joanne Warwick pictured at another protest.
An attorney who says she was shoved to the ground by police during an Occupy Oakland protest (see video above) has agreed to settle her federal civil rights lawsuit for more than $40,000, including attorneys’ fees.
The Oakland City Council earlier this year agreed to pay $27,000 to Joanne Warwick, who now lives in Detroit. The council is expected to give final approval Tuesday night to pay an additional $15,000 in attorneys’ fees to her lawyer, Bill Simpich. The city is admitting no wrongdoing in the case.
Warwick, 50, said she was pushing her bicycle and marching with Occupy Oakland protesters in the city’s downtown on Jan. 28, 2012, when an officer shoved her in the back near Ninth and Madison streets. In an interview Tuesday, Warwick said the police had falsely accused her of delaying the officers with her bike.
“This is the perfect example of, ‘Beat on somebody, use excessive force and blame the victim,’” Warwick said.
Warwick said in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco that she “complained to the officers in the skirmish line of this battery” and then saw officers being “aggressive with other protesters.” Warwick said Tuesday, “The skirmish line was acting like a bully line.”
She yelled in front of the officers, “I think Judge Henderson needs to see that,” referring to the federal judge, Thelton Henderson, who is overseeing police reforms mandated by a civil settlement stemming from the Oakland police “Riders” scandal.
Warwick said she saw officers shoving and hitting another protester in his back with batons and that she and other protesters screamed at them to stop.
A line of officers advanced at the protesters, and one officer pushed her to the ground, the suit says.
Warwick tried to get her bike but was “roughly handled and pushed around by other police officers who would not let her retrieve her property,” according to the suit. She was arrested and was one of 12 people issued stay-away orders obtained by Alameda County prosecutors. The orders barred them from coming within 300 feet of Frank Ogawa Plaza outside City Hall, and the vacant Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, which protesters had tried to take over.
Prosecutors later dismissed charges of resisting arrest and obstructing movement on the street, the suit says.
