City Will Pay $50,000 to Settle With Handcuffed Girl

Home Live Wire City Will Pay $50,000 to Settle With Handcuffed Girl


The city reached a settlement on a two-year case with the attorney of I’Mecca Pearson who was kneed by two officers and then cuffed on a bus for not sitting down fast enough. The then 10-year-old Pearson was getting on a bus after school at Eubie Blake in Bensonhurst when officers Joseph Cortes and Dennis McAllister from the 79th Precinct demanded she move faster. They placed metal handcuffs on her and told her they would not remove it until she sat straight in her chair.

The uproar over the case led to a change in regulation and imposed Velcro instead of metal handcuffs for insubordinate youths.  The Pearson case is part of a larger class-action suit brought against the city by the New York Civil Liberties Union for excessive force to minors.

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