Penn Student Awarded $80,000 After Being Arrested During 'Occupy' Movement Sweep
By Hadas Kuznits
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A University of Pennsylvania doctoral student has won a federal civil case stemming from the 2011 "Occupy Philadelphia" movement.
This is the first of 27 civil cases filed over events surrounding "Occupy" demonstrations in 2011.
Lloyd Long III, a partner in the center city law firm of Krasner & Long, says his client, Gregory Harris, was unlawfully arrested about 4am on November 30th, 2011.
Long says Harris was a Penn PhD student studying the organization and rise of the Occupy movement who went to City Hall earlier in the evening after getting word that the city was beginning to evict protesters.
"He grabbed his camera, he grabbed his audio recorder, he grabbed his notepad, and he went down there and he watched," Long says. While there, an officer claimed that, out of nowhere, Harris punched him in the face.
"There was nothing tending to support that," Long told KYW Newsradio this morning. "The officer then went, tackled him from behind, and placed him under arrest. He was acquitted at a criminal trial, (and) we filed a civil rights lawsuit on his behalf."
Yesterday, a federal jury returned a verdict against the officer and awarded Harris $80,000 in compensatory damages.
