Austin Settles with Another 2020 Social Justice Protester, Bringing Total to $20.8 Million

By Skye Seipp Updated March 15 2024

The city of Austin settled another lawsuit with a participant in the 2020 social justice protests who claimed police knocked her phone down, shoved her, grabbed her by the neck and threw her on the ground when she tried filming the arrest of another marcher.

Eli Winkelman’s $55,000 payout brings the city’s total to $20.8 million in settlements related to the 2020 protests, when thousands of people poured into streets across the country, including Austin, to protest police violence in the wake of George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis and the shooting of Michael Ramos in Austin.

Winkelman filed a lawsuit against the city, the Austin Police Department and the accused officers in August 2022 for excessive force.

The civil case was filed in federal court and negotiated by city staff and Winkelman’s lawyers last month, according to Maff Caponi, a lawyer with the Kaplan Law Firm representing Winkelman. Court records show that lawyers from both parties filed a motion to dismiss the case Tuesday.

While many of the settlements have been put before the City Council, Winkelman’s wasn’t because of its lower dollar amount.

Winkelman told the American-Statesman that even though it took longer to settle than she had expected, she’s happy that “something came out of this” and that her settlement continues to highlight the need for change.

“There are still serious problems in policing,” Winkelman said. “It’s easy when there aren’t massive things happening, causing it to be in the news, for everyone to move on and pretend that it never happened, that the demand for change … was a temporary demand.”

Video footage of the incident shows Winkelman approaching a group of Austin police officers after they pepper-sprayed someone and tried to arrest some of her friends at a protest Aug. 29, 2020, according to the lawsuit.

In the video, provided to the Statesman, Winkelman can be seen with her phone out approaching an officer attempting to arrest someone when another officer walked up and knocked her phone to the ground.

She then picked up her phone and began approaching that officer, who can be seen on video turning around and pushing her into a group of other officers. Another officer can be seen on video grabbing her by the neck or shoulder region and throwing her on the ground.

The lawsuit states that Winkelman experienced symptoms of post-concussive syndrome after the incident, despite wearing a bike helmet at the time.

Caponi said the firm is happy with the settlement.

“We view this as a positive result as a step towards the kind of … incremental change that we need to see in policing in the city,” Caponi said.

In the wake of the protests, Travis County District Attorney José Garza indicted 21 Austin police officers for their use of force during the May 2020 social justice protests. Garza dropped 17 of those indictments last December.

In February, reporting by the Statesman uncovered that higher-ups in the Police Department knew five months before the protests that the “less-lethal” bean bag munitions could cause greater injuries than they should. Those bean bag munitions have been at the center of many of the settlements the city has paid out.

This article was originally published by Austin American-Statesmen.