Louima to Settle NYPD Lawsuit for $9 Million

The city has approved a $9-million settlement with a Haitian immigrant who was tortured in a police station, seeking to close an ugly chapter in the history of the nation’s largest police department.

Under the tentative deal, Abner Louima would receive payment from the city and the Police Benevolent Assn. but would drop his demand that the New York Police Department changes how it deals with officers accused of abuse, sources close to the case said Thursday.

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani told reporters that he had authorized the settlement “some time ago.”

“It seemed to be a valid settlement,” the mayor said. He added that he hopes “it begins some of the healing process that has to take place after a terrible incident like that.”

The settlement--stemming from a 1997 incident that sparked angry protests and led to convictions of six officers--would be the largest ever paid by the city for a police brutality claim, according to the city comptroller’s office.

The draft agreement was circulated this week among lawyers to get approval from their clients, the sources told Associated Press.

Barring any last-minute obstacle, the parties will meet Wednesday in federal court in Brooklyn to finalize the agreement, which was struck after months of negotiations between city attorneys and lawyers for Louima.

Louima sued for $155 million in 1998, claiming officers at Brooklyn’s 70th Precinct conspired to create a “blue wall of silence and lies to obstruct justice.” The civil rights lawsuit charged police and officials of the powerful PBA with condoning an “environment in which the most violent police officers believed they would be insulated” from prosecution.