Milwaukee Common Council approves $5 million settlement in strip search/body cavity search case

MILWAUKEE -- On Tuesday, January 19th, the Milwaukee Common Council voted to approve a $5 million settlement in pending civil lawsuits. Those lawsuits claim unlawful body cavity and strip searches by Milwaukee police officers.

There are 74 plaintiffs in these lawsuits. Those 74 people are one step closer to getting a substantial amount of money.

"Now did every every claimant, were they illegal? Probably not. But we're settling it all globally. And some certainly were. So I think overall it was a fair settlement," Milwaukee Alderman Nik Kovac said.

The Common Council on Tuesday voted to accept the city attorney and Common Council committee recommendation to settle the lawsuits involving unlawful body cavity and strip searches for $5 million.

The vote came after much discussion -- much of it by Alderman Mark Borkowski. He said he sees a trend of "whimpification" of the Milwaukee POlice Department.

"Now we cannot check different cavities, as far as, where drugs are concerned. Why don't we give the keys to the city to the criminals?" Alderman Borkowski said.

"The fact that someone is a known drug dealer, my colleague, should not be a reason to sexually assault someone," Alderman Russell Stamper said in response.

Four Milwaukee police officers were fired and convicted after pleading no contest to criminal charges stemming from strip searches and body cavity searches -- all misdemeanors with the exception of a felony charge against Michael Vagnini.

Soon after, came civil suits and more claims of wrongdoing.

"We have to recognize the difficulty of trying to litigate the large number of cases that are coming before us. That are coming under this banner," Alderman Ashanti Hamilton said.

Jonathan Safran represents 14 of the 74 plaintiffs.

"Our goal was to make sure that these types of unconstitutional violations never occur again. And sometimes the only way that occurs is a civil settlement," Safran said.

The settlement must now be approved by Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and signed by the 74 plaintiffs.

Here is how the $5 million will be split up:

Below is a statement from Robin Shellow, an attorney who represented some of the plaintiffs in this case: