NEW YORK _ A mother whose 1-year-old son was ripped from her arms at a Brooklyn benefits office has received a $625,000 settlement from New York City.
Jazmine Headley's confrontation on Dec. 7, 2018, with Human Resources Administration peace officers and NYPD cops was captured in a video that went viral and prompted apologies from Mayor Bill de Blasio and other prominent officials.
"Ms. Headley came to the City seeking help, and we failed to treat her with the dignity and respect she deserved," said Olivia Lapeyrolerie, a spokeswoman for de Blasio. "While this injustice should have never happened, it forced a reckoning with how we treat our most vulnerable and prompted us to make reforms at HRA Centers across the City. We hope this settlement brings Ms. Headley and her family a degree of closure."
Headley sued the city in August. Her suit recounted the episode and her ensuing trauma in disturbing detail.
The lawsuit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court recounts the ordeal _ and its ongoing consequences.
"Ms. Headley had been humiliated, assaulted, physically injured, threatened with a taser, brutally separated from her son, handcuffed, arrested, and jailed," the suit read.
"What unleashed this torrent of violence and abuse against a young mother and her son? Ms. Headley had dared to sit on the floor of the crowded HRA waiting room next to her son's stroller, her back against a wall. She was tired after waiting for almost three hours to see a caseworker."
She spent two days at Rikers Island on charges of obstruction, resisting arrest, endangered the welfare of a child, and trespassing. Those were the first days she'd even been apart from her son, the suit notes. The charges were later dismissed.
Her son "displayed changed behaviors after the events, including a diminished appetite, separation anxiety, and difficulty sleeping, and he became more withdrawn," the suit says.
Headley previously said she hoped her suit would prompt reforms that address an unfair stigma associated with people receiving public assistance.
City Hall pointed to an array of changes at the city's Department of Social Services, including de-escalation training and a plan to equip every peace officer with body cameras by the end of the year.
A message for Headley's attorneys was not immediately returned.
