Lawsuit against police is settled

A settlement has been reached in a federal civil lawsuit against the Blooming Prairie Police Department and Steele County Sheriff’s Office. The settlement came during a conference in U.S. Federal Court in Minneapolis last Wednesday. Details of the settlement are not being disclosed until all sides have signed the agreement, which is expected within the next seven days. 
However, Joe Flynn, attorney for the City of Blooming Prairie and former police chief Paul Wayne, confirmed that cash will be paid out by both the city and county.
“We paid a relatively small sum in order to bring finality to this,” Flynn told the Times. “Because of the on-going costs involved with this, we decided to resolve it and move on.”
Though cash will be paid out to settle the lawsuit, Flynn said the city, county and the officers involved maintain they did nothing inappropriate. 
Valanchie and Ashly Garcia of Blooming Prairie filed a civil rights lawsuit in October 2013 alleging constitutional, false imprisonment and defamation claims and sought more than $930,000 in damages. The officers involved in the lawsuit were former chief Wayne and former sheriff’s deputy Greg Skillestad, who has since become the current BP chief.
The lawsuit alleged on April 17, 2013, Wayne and Skillestad forced their way into Garcia’s home and pinned him to the wall. “The entry was warrantless and not consensual,” the suit claimed. 
Police came to the Garcia home to follow-up on what basically was a civil dispute between two private parties over the sale of a vehicle. 
Mark Stephenson, attorney for the Garcias, said the settlement was “a lot less than they thought they were going to get, but we’re happy to be over it.”
Stephenson said the federal magistrate pushed really hard on getting both sides to settle the case without going to trial. 
Asked if he considered this a victory for the Garcias, Stephenson replied: “We came to a result that everyone can live with. I don’t know that it’s considered a victory.”