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According to court documents filed in July in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, the City of Yonkers will pay the sum to settle a lawsuit filed by activist Hector Santiago in September 2023 following his arrest at a city council meeting in 2022.
In the lawsuit, Santiago claimed his rights were violated when he was detained during a Yonkers City Council meeting on Nov. 22, 2022. According to the lawsuit complaint, a Yonkers Police detective forcefully pulled Santiago out of the meeting after he began yelling "vote" in an attempt to ease the tension in the room created by an argument between a council member and the audience.
Soon, more detectives joined in and "roughly handled" Santiago, causing him serious pain in his injured shoulder and arm which he had had surgery on days before, the complaint said.
The complaint also claimed that once Santiago was able to leave the chamber, he was grabbed by Yonkers Detective Russell Kilgore and punched in the face after he moved his arm to get him to stop forcefully holding him. This led to a "police melee" during which Santiago was brought to the ground and handcuffed before being led out of the building.
Santiago was later charged with assaulting an officer and had to attend over 20 court appearances between November 2022 and July 2023. The charge against Santiago was later dismissed, the complaint said.
Santiago is well-known in Yonkers as the founder of Stop and Shake, a nonprofit organization encouraging friendly relations with the city's police department. He is also a member of the city's Human Rights Commission.
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