Oakland Pays $500,000 To Injured Anti-War Protester

Oakland Pays $500,000 To Injured Anti-War Protester
From CBS affiliate, KFMB-TV San Diego
http://www.kfmb.com/stories/story.18305.html
07-21-05

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - The city of Oakland has agreed to pay half a million dollars to settle a lawsuit filed by an anti-war protester who was injured when police fired wooden dowels and rubber balls during an April 2003 demonstration.

The Oakland City Council also signed off on two other injury claims from the 500-person protest at the Port of Oakland that took place during the early days of the war with Iraq. A man who said his fingers were broken will get $85,000, while another demonstrator who suffered cuts and bruises is set to get $7,500, according to city lawyers.

Willow Rosenthal, the most seriously injured of the protesters, settled her lawsuit for $500,000. Rosenthal was hit in the back of her right calf with a wooden pellet and said she had at least $80,000 in doctors' bills after undergoing several surgeries for internal bleeding and skin grafts.

All but 14 of the 58 people who sued the city after the protest - including several longshoremen who were caught in the standoff - have settled their lawsuits. The remaining cases are scheduled to go to trial in January unless they are settled before then. They city already has paid $154,000 to 24 people who claimed they were hurt in the demonstration, which highlighted the port's role in shipping supplies to the war.

The Oakland City Council is scheduled to approve the three latest settlements on Sept. 20. Rosenthal and her attorney, James Chanin, declined to discuss her deal until it is completed.

During the protest, officers tried to disperse the crowd by firing beanbag rounds, wooden dowels and "sting balls," which send out a spray of BB-sized rubber pellets and a cloud of tear gas.