GRAHAM, N.C. — A group of people have settled their claims against Alamance County and the City of Graham, after they filed a lawsuit late last year saying law enforcement overstepped in their response to a march to the polls.
The event ended - not at the polls - but in arrests, after officers pepper sprayed demonstrators following a moment of silence in the courthouse square.
The events of the day eventually led to federal lawsuits: demonstrators said their rights were violated, while the city and county denied those claims - saying the group was violating the rules.
On Wednesday, a document was filed in federal court showing that some - but not all - of the plaintiffs settled, with the stipulation that the case be permanently dismissed. The city and county must pay the plaintiffs an undisclosed amount of money.
Late last year, a group of protesters filed lawsuits, angry they were disrupted during what they called a peaceful march to the polls on the last day of early voting. They claim law enforcement in Graham and Alamance County violated their First Amendment rights, and impeded their right to vote.
The city and county denied most of the claims, including that law enforcement planned a violent dispersal of a peaceful march to the voting site.
WFMY News 2 spoke with Reverend Greg Drumwright, one of the plaintiffs in a different lawsuit, who tells us that although some have settled, he is staying the course with his lawsuit and will not settle.
"We are seeking to go the long haul with this lawsuit because we want the people in Alamance County - my people in Alamance County - to be liberated and we want them to be able to express their freedom of speech without any further infringement upon their constitutional rights," Drumwright said.
We reached out to officials involved in Graham and Alamance County, but have yet to get a response.
