Former Inmates Yet to Collect $27M

Newsday ^ | 9/8/02

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Only 10 percent of 300,000 former Los Angeles county jail inmates eligible to share a $27 million judgment for wrongful incarceration and illegal searches have filed claims.

The remaining 270,000 have until Sept. 20 to make a claim or else they will lose their portion of the settlement, said attorney Barry Litt, who represented the plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit.

The county Board of Supervisors agreed in August 2001 to the settlement.

County sheriff's department officials blamed clerical errors for detaining scores of inmates beyond their release dates between 1996 and 2001. In some cases, inmates were wrongly incarcerated because of erroneous warrants... CLICK

[Tacis]

The class action law suit lawyers, however, got their one third cut off the top on day one and couldn't, therefore, give a big rat'e a** about the guys who were actually wronged by the cops. More proof of the damage done by plaintiff's attornies in this country. At minimum, their payout should not be based on gross award but on the basis of how many of the class they have established step forward to collect.

[struwwelpeter]

Perhaps they are in jail, have been deported, or died in gun fights with police or other gang members?

Or better yet, they're afraid it's one of those scams the police use to round up 'wanteds'.

[SSN558]

"Perhaps they are in jail, have been deported, or died in gun fights with police or other gang members?"

Perhaps also, some of them are uneducated, live in bad neighborhoods, and have been unable to get jobs owing to their wrongful convictions. Convicted felons usually end up homeless. Police that fabricate evidence, plant drugs on suspects, sell the drugs they confiscate, and commit murder are no better than the gangs they are supposed to police. In fact they are a worse problem because they are rarely held accountable until a city burns to the ground. What are you advocating ?

[Bogey78O]

They can proceed to steal it from each other....