Gabby Gaspard
The Beaumont City Council approved a $15,000 settlement to resolve Linh Bass’s civil rights lawsuit, where she claims police violated her rights in a 2022 incident.
BEAUMONT, Texas — The Beaumont City Council voted Tuesday, March 3, to approve a $15,000 payment to settle a civil rights lawsuit filed by a woman who alleged Beaumont police officers violated her constitutional rights during a 2022 encounter.
The lawsuit was filed by Linh Bass, who claimed several officers with the Beaumont Police Department and the City of Beaumont violated her rights in July 2022 when officers went to her workplace, handcuffed her and transported her to the police station without a valid arrest warrant or probable cause.
According to the original complaint, Bass said she was not a criminal suspect but “only a possible witness to an incident that had happened more than two years earlier.” She alleged officers used unnecessary force, took her personal belongings, read her Miranda rights and collected her DNA without proper legal justification.
Bass contended her Fourth Amendment rights were violated and that she suffered emotional distress and damage to her reputation as a result of the incident. In her lawsuit, she sought money damages and other relief to hold the officers and the city responsible.
With Tuesday’s vote, the council authorized the $15,000 settlement to resolve the civil lawsuit.
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