SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB) – The City of Springfield has reached a settlement with a man who was beaten during a traffic stop nearly three years ago.
On November 27, 2009, Melvin Jones III was pulled over on Rifle Street. While trying to cuff Jones during the traffic stop, Officer Jeffrey Asher began to beat Asher with a flashlight.
Asher later retired from the police department and was convicted on a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon related to the case. He is currently serving 18 months in jail.
After the assault, which was caught on amateur video, Jones filed a lawsuit against the city and the Springfield Police Department claiming excessive force and civil rights violations.
Attorney John Liebel, who represented the city in the case, tells ABC40 that the settlement announced Wednesday followed a two-day mediation in early August in federal court.
Jones will receive the settlement in two parts: $275,000 over a 30 year period as part of a structured settlement, and $300,000 in attorney and legal fees.
Jones, meanwhile, remains in jail on domestic assault charges, after an arrest back in July.
Ya know ppl can judge all they want but at the end of the day Noone knows how that beating affected him. I’m not sayn its ok or the the amt is right but let’s remember he was a victim
People lets not forget, he getting paid for what the cops did to him,
and im pretty sure if that was yall,yall do the samething,
his past or what he doing has nothing to do with this case, this man was be beat bad!!!
Geesh where y’all heart and love @ imagine yall child get beat like that!!!!
#lesson learn allways have your camera out and video !!
@Benny the guy is a convicted drug seller. He has domestic violence convictions. He was arrested for stealing clothes. He is a habitual criminal. He shouldn’t be getting anything.
Maybe he will be by to buy some rock from you
That is a bit excessive – don’t ya think! Unbelievable
Wtf!! Paying a thief, drug user, and wife beater $575,000??? Give that **** a $25 dollar gift certificate to savers so he can get some cheap jeans so he doesn’t have to steal them. Kiss that money gone in a year. Drugs,drugs,drugs….
Lol he waw my roomate in.ludlow
Was*
I’m sorry but. if u read the article my dude has to pay $300,000 in legal fee so he is left with $275,000 which they r giving him in installments for the next 30 years do the math that’s $765 a month I know ppl on ssi that get more than that smmfh!
I’d like to see the size of the rock he’s gonna buy with that.
Only in a America!!
Lucky basterd
JD Wentworth 877-Cash-now
People on ssi didn’t commit a crime that landed them in prison! Maybe they should make him buy his own food in prison so tax payers don’t have to!
they should take $25,000 for each time he’s been arrested since then!!!
Elia, Being left with $275, 000 over any amount of time or any denomination a month is WAY to much for a douche bag to society.
Who gives a rats *** how he feels. He’s a scum bag and always will be one. Victim my ***, the only victims here are the tax payers.
john there’s a lot of douce bag to society so u telling Rodney King was a douce bag too. and he got paid in the millions god rest his soul. I don’t care what ppl do no one is. suppose to get the **** beat out of them by the same ppl that r paid to protect and serve us bottomline especially wen ur not being a threat. and sorry to tell u john if this would have happened in a bigger. city like l.a. or nyc he would of gotten more money cuz he had legitimate injuries and those r the facts
Had the police just handcuffed him and put him in the back of the police car like they were supposed to, he’d probably be in or on his way to jail,instead of collecting a settlement.
I hope that the person Melvin Jones III assaulted turns around and sues him for 575K… Why are the taxpayers always paying for someone else’s wrong doing??? We pay for lazy people, we pay for people on disability after a workers comp injury or an auto accident??? Shouldn’t the people/person/Insurance responsible pay??? Why does it always come down to the working class to support financially and medically?
and in this particular case he didn’t commit a crime it was a traffic stop. rodney king was drunk and driving reculously so plz ppl stop being so hung up on bs stop hating on this man bcuz he won this case. but does it excuse the crimes he committed b4 this case or after hell no. and that’s it I rest my case
y u white people mad at the victim for be mad at the punkass cop that beat him while he was cuffed ****ing punkass had to tie him up to beat his *** why not do it when his habds wasnt tied up cause we all know the outcome of that i hope they beat his *** in jail o hes gonna be in PC LMAO
^^ ignorant so ur telling me if u got pulled over for no reason and the police put u in cuff and broke ur left eye socket that would b ok.. ya ppl r soo ignorant right is right wrong is wrong a the police ‘ were very WRONG THAT NIGHT!!!
Sooo worried about where da money is coming from but ask ur self whos paying for what the white cop did and who pays for him to serve 18 mos and what melvin got paid isn’t **** so the city really doesn’t pay **** honestly they owe him more $$$$
@benny i dont think this has anything to do with race, but of course someone had to throw it in there. Maybe as Americans we are sick of our hard earned money going to bad use! This guy is a criminal and 575,000 would provide for a lot of homeless vets, hungry children and needy elderly in our state! (all of whom our more deserving then this low life)
Not $575K wrong though!!!! That is excessive I don’t care if white, black, latino, or alien!
This guy should be paying back the city of springfield… he is a criminal with a long record. He may be smiling now… Karmas coming.
Dont get mad at him get mad at the corrupted excessive dickhead cops and their maglites they shouldve cuffed his *** and put him in the cruiser but they decided to give him a paychek lol…