Cincinnati City Manager Patrick Duhaney announced the city has settled a lawsuit brought by a realtor and his client who were handcuffed while legally viewing a house for sale in West Price Hill.
The incident took place in November last year, when Anthony Edwards and his realtor Jerry Isham were scheduled to view a house at 1093 Morado Drive in the neighborhood and gained entry via a key left in a lockbox at the front door.
They didn’t know it at the time, but a neighbor, former police officer Thomas Branigan, called the police to report a potential case of breaking and entering.
“I just seen two black male subjects force the front door open,” Branigan, who is white, told police. Branigan did stipulate to the call center operator that the house was for sale and that he did not see either man entering the property with a weapon.
Three officers arrived at the scene, and one briefly pulled out her firearm, according to the lawsuit attorney Chris Finney filed on behalf of Edwards and Isham. Despite explaining the situation, the two were then handcuffed for a brief period before they were released.
Police documentation gained via a public records request supports the basic narrative offered in the lawsuit brought by Edwards and Isham.
“The city regrets this extremely unfortunate and unnecessary situation,” Duhaney wrote in a statement. “Mr. Isham and Mr. Edwards did nothing wrong. We have reached a settlement in the amount of $151,000 that includes voluntary training with police and the Board of Realtors. Further, we are in the process of implementing implicit bias training for all city employees. We sincerely apologize.”
This article appears in Jul 17-24, 2019.