Lawrence, MA- Police are facing so many lawsuits the city will no longer defend them.

Mayor William Lantigua says he will no longer pay legal bills for police officers being sued, including the bills for those officers involved in nine brutality cases pending in U.S. District Court.

The mayor says over the past three years, the city has spent $1.2 million to defend officers in civil cases. Instead, Lantigua says he will hold to the police unions' contract, which says the city only has to pay the $5,000 retainer for a patrolman and $7,500 for a superior officer. Lantigua says officers have two options when they are being sued — to use one of the three city attorneys or have their unions pay for the defense.

Patrolmen "are currently faced with the prospect of having to finance their own legal defense and personally satisfy any adverse judgments potentially rendered against them," wrote Mark Esposito, the lawyer representing the patrolmen.


Link:
http://www.eagletribune.com/latestnews/x253819531/City-pulls-plug-on-police-legal-bills