(Bay City News) A federal judge has given preliminary approval to a $1 million settlement in a lawsuit filed against the city of Oakland and Alameda County on behalf of 150 people who were arrested during a 2010 protest related to the fatal shooting of Oscar Grant III.
U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson of San Francisco tentatively approved the settlement in a June 13 order and will hold a final approval hearing on Sept. 9.
The people were arrested during a march protesting the sentencing of former BART officer Johannes Meheserle, who fatally shot Grant, 22, of Hayward, at the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland early on New Year's Day in 2009.
Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced in November 2010 to two years in prison. He was given credit for time served and was released in June 2011.
The civil rights lawsuit was filed in 2011 by four protesters as a class action on behalf of the approximately 150 marchers arrested during a demonstration on Nov. 5, 2010.