CLEVELAND, Ohio — The city of Cleveland on Monday settled two lawsuits related to a 2017 arrest that resulted in three police officers being disciplined.

The city agreed to pay $175,000 to Jo-Nathan Luton, his attorney Sarah Gelsomino said. Luton’ lawsuit accused Cleveland police officers Steven Fedorko, Joseph Tylka and Lewis Stevens of using excessive force when they arrested him on March 4, 2017.

Fedorko and the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association, during a mediation held in front of U.S. District Judge Dan Polster, also agreed to drop a separate lawsuit they filed over how the police department’s Internal Affairs Unit investigated Fedorko, the union’s President Jeff Follmer said.

Fedorko was suspended for 30 days for lying about how he broke his toe while arresting Luton. His lawsuit claimed Internal Affairs investigators overstepped their bounds when they reviewed more than 67,000 text messages and numerous photographs, even though a search warrant only authorized them to look at data related to Fedorko’s injury and Luton’s arrest.

Follmer said the union dropped the suit as part of an agreement to resolve both lawsuits. The move was also to protect Fedorko, as the officer ran the risk of having a large money judgment against him if Luton took his own lawsuit to trial and won, and the city refused to pay for damages on his behalf, the union president explained.

Polster previously urged the city to settle by clarifying its policy to say “that a search of a law enforcement officer’s cell phone not exceed the scope of the search warrant.” However, no changes were made to the policy as part of the settlement, though the union pursued the lawsuit in the hopes that such a change would be made, Follmer said.

Gelsomino said the case provides an example “of the kind of policing that has no place in our society.

“It is dangerous and should not be permitted,” she said.

A Cleveland city spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Luton, 36, is serving a three-year prison sentence on a felonious assault conviction in a separate case. His criminal history also includes being arrested in April by U.S. marshals after he escaped an ambulance, and pending grand theft and identity fraud charges in Cuyahoga County.

Luton’s lawsuit, filed in March, said officers used excessive force when they arrested him while responding to a domestic violence incident.

The lawsuit said officers twice used a Taser on Luton and grabbed him as he tried to run into a home. The officers also pressed their knees into Luton’s back and neck, kicked him and twisted his ankle, according to the suit.

Tylka wrote in a police report that Luton kicked and broke Fedorko’s big toe. Fedorko also said Luton broke his toe in a form he submitted to the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation.

Luton faced felonious assault on a police officer and other charges after his arrest. County prosecutors dropped the charges in February 2018.

An Internal Affairs probe called the officers’ narrative into question.

Footage from Tylka’s body camera showed him pick up a wooden shelf and toss it onto Fedorko’s right foot. Footage from another officer’s body camera also appeared to show the same thing, according to a search warrant sworn out by police Sgt. Mitchell Sheehan.

Tylka’s body camera also contained footage of Fedorko pointing at Tylka, saying “this is your fault” and then pointing at his foot, the warrant stated.

Officials determined the officers had not been truthful about the injury. They suspended Fedorko for 30 days in August 2018, though his discipline also stemmed from events unrelated to Luton’s arrest. Tylka and Stevens received 12- and eight-day suspensions, respectively.

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