A civil lawsuit against Rutland City brought by former Rutland City police officer Andrew Todd has been settled for $975,000.
In his lawsuit, Todd, an African American, alleged racism and other police misconduct forced him to leave his job in 2012 after nearly a decade on the force.
William Notte, president of the Rutland City Board of Aldermen, said the board unanimously approved the settlement at their meeting last night.
He says the city has a new police chief and the majority of the officers now serving the city were not part of the department when the incidents mentioned in the suit took place.
"I feel like we owe it to our new chief, to the excellent group of officers we have now, and to the City of Rutland as a whole to put this behind us and not allow things that happened with people who are no longer on the force to drag the current force through the mud," he said.
Notte says the city’s insurer will pay all but $500 dollars of the $975,000 settlement.
Todd's lawyer, John Paul Faignant, says his client’s motivation was not to get a million dollars but to expose information that he felt police officials were covering up.
“He accomplished everything he set out to accomplish when the press finally paid attention to the details and informed the public of it," Faignant said. "Once that happened, as far as Andy Todd was concerned, he was a happy man and the rest of it is icing on the cake"
Todd is now a trooper with the Vermont State Police.
[This story was revised at 2:30pm 12/22 to correct the first reference of the settlement amount.]
