CLACKAMAS, Ore. — Editor's note: The video attached to this story originally aired in June 2020.
Clackamas County has agreed to a $45,000 settlement in a lawsuit brought by Ka'Mar Benbo and his mother stemming from an August 2019 incident in which the family alleged a sheriff's deputy pressed his knee onto Ka'Mar's neck. Ka'Mar is Black and was 12 years old at the time.
"I do believe this will help them realize that we will not back down," Ka'Mar's mother Jarena McDavid said on Wednesday. "We will not let you do this to our loved ones, to anybody in the community. It's letting them know that we're here, we're going to fight."
Shortly after the lawsuit was filed in June 2020, McDavid told KGW that Ka'Mar and some friends had been at the Clackamas Town Center on the day of the August 2019 incident and left after witnessing a fight, but were stopped by deputies.
The lawsuit, filed in Clackamas County Circuit Court, alleged that deputies elbowed Ka'Mar in the face and pushed him to the ground, and that a deputy put a knee on Ka'Mar's neck, making it difficult to breathe. The lawsuit sought $300,000.
The Clackamas County sheriff at the time, Craig Roberts, said in a June 2020 statement that the deputies had responded to a 911 call from mall security about a fight involving a group of juveniles and asked a group of juveniles in the parking lot to remain while they investigated.
One of them refused to comply and "pulled away from deputies," Roberts said, who "briefly placed him on the grass and then in handcuffs," then questioned him and released him to his guardian.
Ka'Mar was never charged with a crime.
The sheriff's office investigated the incident after receiving a complaint from McDavid, Roberts said, and found that the deputies acted properly and none of them put a knee on Ka'Mar's neck — a conclusion which McDavid disputed.
Clackamas County notified the court of the settlement on Dec. 9, according to court records. Under the terms of the settlement, the county will pay $45,000 to Ka'Mar via a trust account through his attorneys. He will be restricted from accessing the funds until he turns 18.
The agreement does not include any statement about the facts of the 2019 incident, and stipulates that the county does not admit any wrongdoing or liability.
Current Clackamas County Sheriff Angela Brandenburg released a statement on Wednesday in which she said the settlement agreement was "in the best interest of all parties," and added that her office stands by the actions of the deputies.
"No deputy placed a knee on Ka'Mar Benbo's neck," she said. "We do not train deputies to restrict a person's airway or impede their ability to breathe. I will continue to ensure that my deputies are properly trained and that all uses of force are reviewed to ensure they are within policy."
McDavid said she was relieved to have reached an end to the legal battle, but expressed frustration that the settlement didn't resolve the central dispute about the facts of what happened during the incident.
"I just feel like they should admit to what the photo was showing," she said, referring to a screenshot from a video of the incident. "Three officers, 12-year-old boy, the knee's clearly on the back of his neck. They could just acknowledge that they did something wrong and make a change with the police officers there. That's what I really, really wanted, was a change."
The incident was traumatizing for Ka'Mar, she said, and left him with lasting nervousness and uncertainty about how to interact with police. Even so, she added, the settlement is an important achievement for him.
"The impact is that he knows that he can stand his ground and fight for what is right," she said. "I showed him that when you are treated poorly, treated badly, and it's against the law, whether it's a police officer or a friend of yours, we're going to fight for what's right and let them know you can't do this."