Pittsburgh City Council is set to give final approval Tuesday to a $125,000 settlement in the Jordan Miles case, potentially ending a six-year legal battle between the city and the young black man who accused three white city police officers of attacking him in 2010.
There’s been no public discussion of the deal reached between Miles’ attorney, Joel Sansone, and the city Law Department; City Council held a closed-door executive session on the matter before unanimously approving the deal in a committee vote last Wednesday.
The preliminary approval paves the way for final passage of a deal that’s about 30 percent less than the $180,000 settlement the city government initially offered in 2011.
But the settlement that could be approved Tuesday is also slightly higher than the $119,000 figure that a jury wanted to award Miles following a 2014 federal lawsuit. That jury found Richard Ewing, Michael Saldutte and David Sisak guilty of false arrest, but not guilty of excessive force.
Sansone has said Miles will drop his appeal of that U.S. District Court decision if Council approves the settlement Tuesday at its regular meeting on Tuesday morning.
Miles said the three officers did not identify themselves before beating him severely and arresting him without cause on a January night in 2010.
The officers have contended that they did identify themselves, and that Miles, a high school student at the time, ran away when they ordered him to stop along a Homewood street.
