Last week in Oakland, the City Council approved a deal to pay $2 million to settle a federal lawsuit brought by sixteen Asian American women who said a former Oakland police officer, Richard Valerga, groped or sexually harassed them: Oakland will pay $2 million settlement in police groping suit.
We've actually been following this case for several years. This will be the second payment Oakland has made to settle claims involving Valerga, who resigned from the police department in 2005. Oakland paid a $190,000 settlement to two other women in 2006 to settle similar claims. Yeah, the sicko has a serious problem.
Valerga also faced criminal charges in 2005. He pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor counts of false imprisonment and two misdemeanor civil rights violations. He was sentenced in 2006 to three years probation and six months in jail. This guy sexually targets Asian American women, abuses his authority as an officer of law... and that's all he got. A slap on the wrist. Ridiculous.
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