Settlement reached in Texas shakedown lawsuit: A small East Texas town and the county where it's situated will implement procedures aimed at stopping racial profiling to settle a class action lawsuit that accuses former officials of shaking down innocent motorists for cash, according to documents filed in federal court late Friday.
Tenaha and Shelby County have agreed to an "impartial policing policy" that will better document and monitor traffic stops to settle the suit, which brought national attention to the town of 1,160 near the Louisiana border when it was filed four years ago.
The suit accuses former District Attorney Lynda Kaye Russell and four other ex-law enforcement officials of forcing motorists, most of them black, to forfeit their cash or face criminal charges.
The filings Friday show that the defendants, including the city and the county as well as the named individuals, also have agreed to pay the plaintiffs' legal fees of $520,000. The 2011 ruling by U.S. District Judge T. John Ward granting class certification limited the case to injunctive and declaratory relief.
The plaintiffs' attorneys said they were pleased by the far-reaching nature of the proposed settlement.
