UC Berkeley To Pay $162K Over Illegal Camera Search Outside Chancellor's Home
BERKELEY (CBS/AP) -- The University of California, Berkeley will pay a photojournalist $162,500 to settle a lawsuit alleging campus police illegally searched his camera for photos of a student protest outside the chancellor's home.
Attorneys for 43-year-old David Morse disclosed the settlement on Monday.
Morse was arrested on suspicion of rioting while covering the protest outside UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau's residence in 2009 for the San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center. Police obtained a search warrant to review photographs he took.
In 2010, an Alameda County Superior Judge invalidated the search warrant and ordered the university to return all copies of Morse's photos.
University spokeswoman Janet Gilmore said UC Berkeley did not admit any wrongdoing as part of the settlement.
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