SWAT raid lawsuit settled for $100K-plus
PITTSBURGH — The city of Pittsburgh will pay more than $100,000 to settle a lawsuit that claimed police used excessive force during a 2010 SWAT team raid.
The lawsuit claimed police acted inappropriately when they entered a home in the Carrick neighborhood to arrest William Moreno, who had been in a bar fight with an off-duty police officer hours before the raid.
The suit said police violated other family members’ civil rights by putting them in handcuffs and interrogating them for 45 minutes. The plaintiffs’ attorney, Tim O’Brien, said officers had no reason to believe that anyone else in the house had committed a crime.
U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer approved the settlement Wednesday.