California Jury Awards Former Black Panther Leader Elaine Brown $4 Million

A jury has awarded former Black Panther Party leader Elaine Brown more than $4 million after the jury found an Oakland councilwoman guilty of injuring Brown.

READ: A Film On Black Panther Leader Elaine Brown Is In The Works

A Northern California jury agreed that the councilwoman, Desley Brooks, should pay Brown $550,000, who was injured after Brooks pushed her during a 2015 confrontation at a restaurant, according to a report from WRAL. The push sent Brown tumbling over a stack of chairs, which resulted in bruises for her as well as having to have surgery for a torn rotator cuff.

Prior to that, the same jury found that Brooks was acting as a city employee during the incident, and decided the city of Oakland should pay Brown $3.8 million in damages. The jury said that Brown, who was 72 at the time of the confrontation, was the victim of elder abuse and battery.

“I feel grateful to the jury for understanding that this wasn’t an issue of two Black women fighting in a bar,” Brown said Monday. “This was someone who was an elected official who abused her power.”

The incident took place at Everett & Jones Barbeque in October 2015, when Brooks told Brown that her plan to build affordable housing for formerly incarcerated people in West Oakland was “of no benefit to black people.” After some words were exchanged Brooks then attacked Brown.

Last year it was announced that a film based on Brown’s 1992 memoir, A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story, was being adapted into a feature film.

Source: WRAL