A federal magistrate has ordered the city to pay $21,610.50 in legal fees to the lawyers for Manuel Pombo, 63, a saxophone player who challenged the way the city enforced policies on performing on the streets.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A federal magistrate has ordered the city to pay $21,610.50 in legal fees to the lawyers for a saxophone player who challenged the way the city enforced policies on performing on the streets.

Lawyers for the state’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union had represented Manuel Pombo, 63, a saxophone player who said police often ordered him to stop playing or arrested him for performing on city streets.

The lawyers had sought a combined $27,551.25 for their work. The city had filed a motion contesting that amount. U. S. District Court Magistrate Judge Lincoln D. Almond pared some of the requested hours and rates, but approved most of the billing. Shannah Kurland should be paid $13,410.50, Almond ruled, and John W. Dineen is due $8,200.

The suit was filed last summer, claiming the city unconstitutionally harassed Pombo, who has been playing the saxophone at various locations throughout the city since the 1990s. He had a 1991 letter from the city’s Board of Licenses that authorized him to play, but he said on numerous occasions city police would tell him to leave an area or arrest him. At times, however, he said some police would compliment his playing or give him a contribution.

Playing music is a form of free speech, Kurland and Dineen argued, and the city’s permission-to-perform letter was a violation of Pombo’s or any other street performer’s First Amendment free speech rights.

Both sides settled the lawsuit in January with the filing of a consent judgment in which the city agreed that it would no longer harass Pombo if he played in public and agreed that “soliciting donations is protected speech under the First Amendment.” The city also agreed to pay Pombo $1,500 in damages.