An FBI informant whose reports of extensive abuse inside Los Angeles County jails helped launch a federal probe that resulted in the convictions of 22 sheriff’s officials will receive a $1 million payout from the county, The Los Angeles Times has reported.
The settlement deal was approved by the board of supervisors on Tuesday in a lawsuit filed by convicted bank robber Anthony Brown, who worked as an informant for FBI agents probing conditions in Los Angeles County jails.
Sheriff’s officials, upon eventually finding out in 2011 that he was aiding the FBI, tried to hide Brown from agents in an attempt to prevent him from reporting about any of the brutality in the jails.
"He was kidnapped for 18 days," Stuart Miller, one of the attorneys representing Brown, told the Times. During that time, Miller said that Brown was denied medical treatment and held in solitary confinement. "He thought he was going to die."
Brown, who is serving a prison sentence of more than 400 years for bank robbery, filed a lawsuit alleging cruel and unusual punishment and retaliation.
He provided FBI agents evidence of a system in which excessive force and other misconduct were regular features in the jails. He mainly transferred information about what he saw in the jails by handing notes about corrupt and brutal deputies during weekly visits with his FBI handler.
Due to this help from Brown, federal prosecutors won convictions or guilty pleas against each of the 22 deputies and higher-ranking officials who faced criminal charges, according to the Times.
Miller said that Brown intends to use the settlement money he will receive to both take care of his family and to fight his lengthy sentence.
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