Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
By By George Warren, KXTV-TV
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The University of
California Davis will pay out nearly $1 million to settle the claims of
students who were pepper-sprayed during a campus protest last year.
Each
of 21 current and former University of California Davis students will
receive $30,000 in a settlement made public Wednesday.
An
additional $100,000 will be set aside for claims from others affected.
The University of California also will pay $250,000 in plaintiffs'
attorney fees plus $20,000 to the American Civil Liberties Union.
The
settlement was approved Sept. 13 during a closed meeting of the
26-member University of California Board of Regents in San Francisco.
A
committee comprised of one person designated by the plaintiffs and one
person chosen by the regents will choose others who will be among the
so-called "settlement class members." Those payments will be capped at
$20,000 a person.
The settlement also calls
for UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi to provide a personal, individual
written apology for the incident to each of the plaintiffs.
In
April, a university task force headed by a former state Supreme Court
justice found that campus police had violated policy in breaking up the
November protest and that campus administrators mishandled the incident.
The settlement will become final after a formal court hearing.