A federal judge dismissed a Ferguson lawsuit Friday that protesters filed against police alleging excessive force against them during a protest in the aftermath of the August 2014 police shooting death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown.
In dismissing the $41.5 million lawsuit, Judge Henry Autrey ruled that plaintiffs “have completely failed to present any credible evidence” that any actions by police “were taken with malice or were committed in bad faith” during the protests, The Washington Post reported.
The protests came after a grand jury decided not to indict officer Darren Wilson in the case of Brown’s death, The Post noted.
Autrey wrote that police gave several orders for the protesters to leave the area and that police “clearly had argued probable cause to arrest any individual” who refused to follow orders.
“At the time of the events detailed herein, the atmosphere surrounding the arrests was extremely intense and had turned violent,” the judge wrote, according to The Post. “Participants in what had turned from a peaceful assembly to unlawful assembly were advised to disperse. Numerous warnings had been announced to the crowds to do so.”
The judge also granted the police officers immunity in this lawsuit, according to The Daily Beast.
“The decision was unfair and not consistent with applicable law,” Gregory Lattimer, one of the attorney’s representing the protesters, told NBC News on Monday. Lattimer said he felt “disappointment and frustration,” after reading the judge's decision.
The local chapter of the NAACP expressed similar frustration with the decision.
“We are disappointed in the end result that plaintiffs’ didn't get what they wanted,” Adolphus Pruitt, president of the St. Louis NAACP, told NBC News.
Lattimer has filed a notice of appeal in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“This is a battle we will keep fighting,” he said. “We will end it in the right way and get justice for these people.”
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