Paterson reaches agreement with man arrested for protesting Jameek Lowery’s death
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Protesters in Paterson demand answers
Paterson protesters gathered outside City Hall on Tuesday night to demand answers about the death of Jameek Lowery and protest police brutality. 1/15/19
Kevin R. Wexler, NorthJersey.com
PATERSON – City taxpayers will ultimately have to foot the bill for a lawsuit filed in connection with the arrest of two Black Lives Matter leaders during a January 2019 protest march following the death of Jameek Lowery in police custody.
According to court documents filed June 18, the lawsuit was settled, but the amount of the compensation is not known. That information usually becomes public when the City Council votes to pay the settlement – which has not yet happened.
The lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey on behalf of Black Lives Matter leader Zellie Thomas and New York City activist Walter “Hawk” Newsome. The ACLU claimed that Paterson police violated Thomas and Newsome’s free speech rights by arresting them.
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The ACLU and Thomas could not be reached for comment on the settlement. Mayor Andre Sayegh’s administration follows a policy of not commenting on litigation.
The protest that led to the arrests took place on January 11, 2019, a bitterly cold Friday night, four days after Lowery’s controversial death; a lawsuit in that case is still pending.
Lowery had recorded a Facebook video at the reception desk of Paterson Police Headquarters in which he admitted to using drugs and said he was paranoid and afraid the cops would kill him. Officers beat Lowery and detained him during the ambulance ride to the hospital, authorities said, and he lost consciousness before reaching the emergency room.
Lowery died on January 7, and violent protests erupted outside City Hall and Paterson Police Headquarters the next evening. Word spread that there would be another protest on January 11, and Paterson police reportedly reached out to activists in the city to warn them of traffic delays.
During the march, Paterson police officers on motorcycles suddenly appeared at the corner of Market and Main streets and cut off the marchers. Thomas, a teacher from Paterson, and Newsome were handcuffed, charged with obstruction of justice, and detained in the police headquarters detention area.
In their lawsuit, Thomas and Newsome claimed they marched along a city street and failed to erect a barrier that would have blocked traffic.
The city’s lawyers tried several times to dismiss the lawsuit, but the judge ruled against the city.
Lawsuit over Jameek Lowery’s death
Meanwhile, attorneys in the lawsuit over Lowery’s death are scheduled to have a conference call on July 9 to discuss the status of settlement negotiations in the case, court records show. Attorneys for Lowery’s family say they have made a settlement demand, but the city has not made a counteroffer, court records show.
The Passaic County District Attorney’s Office released a report in 2019 saying the New Jersey State Medical Examiner’s Office determined that Lowery died from a side effect of the medications he was taking and a pre-existing medical condition.
But lawyers representing Lowery’s family in the case conducted their own autopsy, which, according to news reports, found that the 27-year-old died from beatings inflicted on him by police officers during the ride from headquarters to the hospital.
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