The city of St. Paul reached a settlement Tuesday with a man who allegedly was beaten by police because they thought he had knowledge about an officer’s murder decades earlier.

St. Paul agreed to a $45,000 settlement with Gerald R. Hutchinson, 60, who last year sued the city and officers David Stokes, Laura Boulduan, Jeffrey Lewis and Michael McGinn. As part of the deal, the city admits no wrongdoing, said city attorney Sara Grewing, who added that it was in the taxpayers’ best interest to avoid a trial.

According to Hutchinson’s lawsuit:

The alleged beating occurred on or around March 28, 2007, after he returned home after receiving a phone call from his wife, who told him that police were at their house because someone had broken into their garage. As he walked toward the squad car, an officer yelled at him to put his hands behind his back. When Hutchinson tried to explain that he had spoken to police earlier, two officers punched and kicked him. An officer arriving in a second squad car jumped on Hutchinson’s back and head. Hutchinson, who was arrested and detained for three days, suffered a black eye, bruising, cuts and pain from the attack.

Hutchinson’s attorneys said that he was beaten because his ex-girlfriend had told police that he had knowledge about the 1970 shooting death of St. Paul officer James Sackett, a case that went unsolved until 2006, a year before Hutchinson was allegedly beaten.

Hutchinson grew up near some of the people implicated in the murder, but was only 16 at the time and only had heard rumors about it, according to a court brief by his attorneys. They argued that Hutchinson’s ex-girlfriend tried to convince police that she had knowledge of the murder in an attempt to claim a reward.

Sackett, 27, was killed on May 22, 1970, after he and another officer responded to a call from a woman who said her sister was going into labor and needed help. When they arrived at 859 Hague Av., a sniper ambushed Sackett, killing him with a single shot.

Ronald L. Reed and Larry L. Clark were convicted of the murder in 2006. But in 2008, the Minnesota Supreme Court ordered a new trial for Clark, because of an error in jury instructions. Clark entered an Alford plea in 2009 to charges of conspiracy to commit murder.