Four women who were beaten, pepper-sprayed and dragged by police officers outside Denver Diner in 2009 will share some of a $360,000 settlement approved by the Denver City Council Monday.

The settlement provides $44,453.33 to Ana Alicia Ortega, $44,453.33 to Kelly Boren, $43,573.29 to Kristal Carrillo, and $34,453.33 to Sharelle C. Thomas.

The law firm of Rathod Mohamedbhai will get $193,066.72.

Ortega said after the meeting that the settlement brought some closure, but did not remove the fear that she might run into the officers again someday.

“If anyone else had done this to us, they would be in jail,” she said.

City attorney Doug Friednash noted that after an investigation, Denver’s former manager of safety, Charles Garcia, chose to fire the two officers involved, Kevin Devine and Ricky Nixon, yet the city’s Civil Service Commission overrode that decision and reinstated the officers with back pay.

“Ultimately, it was in the best interest of the city to settle this lawsuit,” he said in a statement. “As a practical matter, the actual costs of going to trial would be more expensive than settling the lawsuit.”

In February, U.S. District Judge William J. Martinez issued an order saying there was enough evidence for the civil case to go to trial.

Martinez went further to say the Denver Police Department had harbored a culture of abuse and covered up of abuses.

The judge said the Denver Police Department had failed to properly train officers on the use of force and does a poor job of investigating and punishing those responsible for excessive force.

He said the department had also tolerated a code of silence among officers regarding abuses.

Qusair Mohamedbhai, the lawyer for the women in the Denver Diner lawsuit, said after the council’s decision that the case was about exposing police brutality that was made possible by the culture in the department.

“The citizens should be outraged about the amount of settlements being written in check after check after check,” he said.

Mohamedbhai wasn’t sure the settlement would change anything.

“There still exists police brutality on the streets of Denver,” he said.

The Denver Diner incident occurred in July 2009 and was one of several cases that brought heavy scrutiny to police brutality cases in Denver.

On January 2009, Alexander Landau was beaten by three officers during a traffic stop, and in 2011 received a $795,000 settlement from the city. The FBI said in February there wasn’t enough evidence to charge the officers with violating Landau’s civil rights.

His federal lawsuit alleged the officers beat him with their fists, flashlights and a radio, and they allegedly called him a racial epithet during the beating.

The department’s review found insufficient evidence of Landau’s claims.

Nixon, one of the officers in that Landau case, was involved in the Denver Diner incident. Nixon was fired for lying on a police report about the Denver Diner case, but was later reinstated.

Nixon filed a federal lawsuit against the city in August alleging he was punished to appease media and political pressure. He is seeking damages that include financial losses and emotional distress.

Another officer in the Landau case, Cpl. Randy Murr, was fired for lying in a police report about another high-profile excessive-force case.

In April 2009, Michael DeHerrera was beaten by police after he and a friend used the women’s restroom in a Lower Downtown bar. DeHerrera settled with the city for $17,500.

Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174, jbunch@denverpost.com or twitter.com/joeybunch