Cash settlement revealed in UCD pepper spray lawsuit | News

SACRAMENTO, CA - Each of the 21 current and former University of California, Davis students who were pepper-sprayed during a campus protest last year will receive $30,000 in a settlement made public Wednesday.

An additional $100,000 will be set aside for claims made by other people affected in the incident. The so-called "settlement class members" will be chosen by a committee comprised of one person designated by the plaintiffs and one person chosen by the UC Regents, with payments capped at $20,000 per person.

The settlement also calls for UCD Chancellor Linda Katehi to provide a personal, individual written apology for the incident to each of the plaintiffs.

The University of California will also pay $250,000 in plaintiff attorney fees, plus $20,000 to the American Civil Liberties Union to help come up with changes in campus policies to prevent such an incident from happening again.

"The biggest thing for me with the settlement is the hope of policy changes and hopefully students will be able to speak out without being harmed again," plaintiff Deanna Johnson said. "Unfortunately, the fiscal settlement is very important to me because I have a lot of student loans."

That $30,000 figure is roughly a year's tuition.

"I plan to use all the money to pay future tuition," student Ian Lee said. "I know that's what my friends are doing. Others are donating it and some are using it to get a good start post college in these difficult economic times."

The $1 million settlement was approved Sept. 13 during a closed meeting of the UC Regents in San Francisco.

The settlement will become final after a formal court hearing.

By George Warren, GWarren@news10.net

Jonathan Mumm contributed to this story,  jmumm@news10.net