May Jung Law Announces $700,000 Settlement with Minneapolis Police Department over Unlawful Detention of Vue Family

Largest witness unlawful detention case in Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS (May 19, 2023) – May Jung Law, a leading civil rights law firm, announced today that it has reached a $700,000 settlement with the City of Minneapolis in a landmark unlawful detention case on behalf of the Vue family.

The groundbreaking settlement marks the largest witness unlawful detention case in the State of Minnesota, if not the country.

On Dec. 15, 2019, Chiasher Vue, a Hmong refugee, was shot and killed by the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD). Police officers held Vue’s four children, the case’s plaintiffs, for over five hours in the back of locked and unheated patrol cars, forced to hear radio traffic authorizing the use of deadly force against their father and ultimately the barrage of bullets that killed him. Video recordings capture over dozens of screams and cries to be released and the MPD’s denials.

The Vue plaintiffs were transported to MPD headquarters, and then locked in separate interrogation rooms — all of which was without a legal basis and against their will. MPD held them for more than five additional hours in interrogation rooms and were never told that their father had been killed hours earlier.

The settlement comes in the wake of the MPD’s policy changes regarding witness detention, enacted through Special Order SO22-027 in November 2022. This order explicitly prohibits every single unlawful action that was inflicted upon the Vue Plaintiffs, signaling a step towards progress and accountability within law enforcement practices.

We hope that the MPD and other law enforcement agencies throughout the country understand that upholding fundamental constitutional requirements is neither discretionary, optional, nor contingent upon an individual’s race, ethnicity, or language capabilities,” said Je Yon Jung, partner at May Jung Law. “It is our fervent hope that the policy changes implemented by the MPD will endure as more than temporary measures or mere lip service.”

For more information about May Jung Law Firm, go to www.mayjung.com.

CONTACT: Sheena Pegarido, spegarido@linksp.com