Eric André and Clayton English’s legal battle against Clayton County police has ended in a settlement, four years after the comedians accused police of racial profiling at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport.
André and English, who are both Black, alleged in their original October 2022 lawsuit that they were racially profiled and subject to “unconstitutional” stops during two separate incidents by Clayton County police at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport as part of a police program intended to combat drug trafficking. The legal team for André and English announced the settlement agreement on Tuesday. The Associated Press reported that the agreement “does not include an admission of fault or liability but says the county has ended the program at issue and has no intention of reactivating it.”
“It’s a major victory that Clayton County has confirmed that it has ended this program and is now taking steps to prevent this type of abuse from happening in the future,” André said in a press release.
“What happened to me was wrong, and I wasn’t willing to let it happen to other people,” English said in the release.
According to the original complaint, the incidents involving André and English occured just months apart. English alleged he was stopped by officials in October 2020 when he was traveling from his hometown of Atlanta to Los Angeles for work. André said he was stopped in April 2021 while also traveling back to Los Angeles after a layover in Atlanta, according to the complaint. The men alleged they were both stopped and searched while on the jet bridge waiting to board and each questioned by officials about drugs.
“The experience was traumatizing, degrading and humiliating,” André said when the lawsuit was filed. Prior to the suit, André also spoke publicly about the incident on X (formerly Twitter) and during his guest spot on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in April 2021.
The lawsuit was dismissed in 2023, but a federal appeals court reversed the decision last August.
AP reported that the county Board of Commissioners during an Aug. 4 board meeting approved a settlement payment of $30,000, with half going each to André and English. As part of the settlement, the county also agreed to require police officers working the airport to use body-worn cameras. Police assigned to airports must also undergo training on “constitutional limits regarding police encounters at airports.”
“As reflected in the settlement agreement between the parties, there has been no admission of any fact or liability whatsoever relating to the incident involving the plaintiffs,” county spokesperson Valerie Fuller told AP. “However, all have agreed that it is in everyone’s interests to resolve this matter to end litigation and move forward.”
