The Los Angeles Police Department paid nearly $81 million in legal settlements last fiscal year, a sharp increase as the city closed the books on several high-profile and costly cases, it was reported Tuesday.
The settlement numbers were significantly higher than in previous years and involved cases that had been working their way through the court system for the last few years, The Los Angeles Times reported.
Among them were two wrongful convictions of men for separate murders. The men each spent more than 25 years behind bars, and the department settled their cases for about $24 million.
An additional $15 million went to a boy left paralyzed after an LAPD officer shot him, The Times reported. The city last fiscal year also agreed to settle a case that it fought all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court involving a man who was shot by officers while holding a cellphone they apparently mistook for a gun. The city paid $7 million.
