[JURIST] US District Judge Henry Autrey [official website] has dismissed [opinion] a lawsuit filed by participants of the Ferguson riots that alleged police abuse. The complaint [text], filed by nine individuals, alleged that police were unlawfully violent when quelling riots in the wake of the 2014 Michael Brown killing, and sought $41.5 million in compensation. Autrey disagreed, and granted summary judgment in favor of the police Friday, holding that the plaintiffs “have completely failed to present any credible evidence that any of the actions taken by these individuals were taken with malice or were committed in bad faith.” The judge also noted multiple inconsistencies in the plaintiffs’ allegations, issues that the plaintiffs’ attorney believed should have gone to the jury. The plaintiffs have already filed a notice of appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

In March, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the city of Ferguson filed [JURIST report] a settlement agreement to conclude a lawsuit brought by the federal government in February. In September a Ferguson reform panel released a report calling for the consolidation [JURIST report] of police departments and municipal courts. In August a new Municipal Court judge in Ferguson ordered sweeping reforms of courtroom practices following a damning federal report of racial bias [JURIST report]. The DOJ report released last year cleared [JURIST report] the former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson from federal prosecution for Brown’s death. Former attorney general Eric Holder additionally stated that the report showed that racial disparities in police practices could not be alternatively explained other than through racial bias, which he says is proven through statistics and an examination of records and emails. In October 2014 Amnesty International reported that police in Ferguson committed human rights abuses [JURIST report] against peaceful protesters in August 2014. Also in October 2014 a federal judge ruled [JURIST report] that a tactic employed by the Ferguson police to control protesters, in which protesters had to constantly keep moving, is unconstitutional because it prevented protesters from peacefully assembling on public sidewalks.