In his sixties, but without a house or a job, Mr. Roberts had a history of unfair arrests as well. But then he got in touch with the law office of Kenneth N. Flaxman, P.C. By taking a portion of whatever settlement the City offered their clients, the firm’s lawyers were able to offer their services for free. Mr. Roberts said he used to shy away from the idea of lawsuits before heard about Kenneth N. Flaxman and had an epiphany.
“I just wanted to happily get away, but over the course of time I learned that I'm not going to keep being the punching bag.”
— Terry Roberts, 61, unemployed
From then on, Mr. Roberts was invincible. One day, he had been standing in a parking lot when the CPD arrested a man for selling drugs. The officers then arrested Mr. Roberts, alleging he was the person buying drugs from him. Mr. Roberts spent twenty-eight days in jail. With his lawyers’ help, Mr. Roberts got the charges against him dropped, and the City paid him $6,000 for falsely arresting him. In another case, Mr. Roberts spent sixteen days in jail and was awarded $3,000.
He attributed his better fortunes to getting better informed about his rights and encouraged others who were having problems with the police to do the same, including the man he was arrested with. If people didn’t use the law to protect themselves, he said, that was on them.