What is most striking about this story is that the arresting officer, Sean Spencer, has been accused of abuses in at least four lawsuits and the city has already paid $80,000 to victims in those cases.
There is also a question of false statements filed by Spencer. He reportedly reported that Gonzalez beckoned to three men in the park and that he was aware that she was a known prostitute who had been previously arrested for solicitation. She had never been arrested on prostitution charges.
I view $35,000 as a tad low for such an abusive arrest, but I am unfamiliar with the range of prior such awards for Brooklyn.
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