ITHACA, N.Y. — New documents show that the City of Ithaca paid the complainant in a federal lawsuit against the Ithaca Police Department $251,000 to settle the disputed claim.

In November 2019, a source with knowledge of the deal told the Voice that the settlement was in the “hundreds of thousands.” New documents recently obtained through Freedom of Information request show that settlement was for a total of $251,000.

The Executed General Release, the terms by which the plaintiff agreed to dismiss the suit, involves no admission of guilt by any of the accused parties. The city and officers involved admit no wrong-doing. According to a source, the settlement represents $250,000 in compensation and $1,000 to fix damage to Kyle Goldstein’s eyelid.

The City of Ithaca settled the federal police brutality lawsuit filed by a former Ithaca College student in November 2019, but the terms of that settlement were private.

The student, Kyle Goldstein, filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court Northern District in April 2019 alleging that two Ithaca Police Department officers used excessive force while illegally detaining him, as well as falsifying their reports to support their account, according to a federal civil rights lawsuit filed against the City of Ithaca, the two officers, the department and former IPD Chief John Barber.

The 65-page complaint filed in U.S. District Court Northern District in April of last year, lays out the series of events that took place on the evening of Nov. 17, 2016, and into the early morning hours of Nov. 18. The suit alleges that officers entered Goldstein’s apartment without first talking to a resident or obtaining a warrant, handcuffed him without cause and threw him to the ground and pepper-sprayed him while he was handcuffed. In doing this, the lawsuit states, the officer used excessive force and his partner violated Goldstein’s civil rights by failing to intervene.

The suit also alleged that Officers Jacob Allard and Daniel Bechtold falsified their field reports to justify their actions afterward.

A copy of the Executed General Release can be viewed at the bottom of this story.

The original story of the lawsuit and the settlement can be found at the links below.

Executed General Release (Goldstein) by Thomas Pudney on Scribd