City pays $23,000 to settle alleged false arrest lawsuit
By Jayed Rahman
Published: July 8, 2015
The city’s governing body approved $23,000 to settle an alleged false arrest lawsuit where a city police officer allegedly planted drugs and arrested a man.
Osama Aldweik, an alleged Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) informant, alleged that he was falsely arrested February 12th, 2012 by city police officer Mahmoud Rabboh, who, along with two others, allegedly planted drugs on him.
Rabboh was charged with conspiracy to violate civil rights and with deprivation of civil rights under color of law by United States Attorney Paul J. Fishman, but those charges were later dropped.
Similarly, Rabboh was indicted in 2013 on charges he falsely arrested four people on June 12th, 2011. The indictment at the time said the police officer arrested the four without probable cause.
The second set of charges were also dropped.
The federal lawsuit involving Rabboh, an 11-year veteran police officer, was settled during a special deliberation session of the council on Tuesday evening.