A Honolulu City Council committee on Tuesday recommended approval of a $150,000 settlement in an excessive force lawsuit filed by the mother of a girl who was arrested at her elementary school over a drawing that had been deemed offensive.

The decision came after a judge ruled this summer that the police officers involved were not eligible for qualified immunity, a concept that supporters say protects employees from liability in risky jobs but critics say shields those employees from responsibility when they should be held accountable. 

Tamara Taylor, the girl’s mother, sued the Honolulu Police Department and the Department of Education in 2022, claiming that police used excessive force and unlawful discrimination against her daughter, who at the time was a 10-year-old student at Honowai Elementary School.

The Committee on Executive Matters and Legal Affairs also recommended that the City Council approve a $670,000 settlement of a discrimination lawsuit filed by the Chinatown gay bar Scarlet Honolulu and newsletter Gay Island Guide in 2021.

Both settlements need final approval by the nine-member City Council, which next meets on Nov. 7.

The lawsuit against the liquor commission alleged that investigators had harassed transgender employees and investigated its establishment more than non-LGBTQ+ establishments.

The complaint also claimed that investigator Jacob Fears entered Scarlet unannounced through a backdoor and assaulted a hired security guard and the bar’s co-owner one night in July 2021.

Gay Island Guide wrote about the incident, and investigators later shut down the newsletter’s Pride event at Waikiki’s White Sands Hotel without cause, the complaint said.

Fears denied these claims, but a judge found them to be credible last summer in a summary judgment.

In addition to paying $670,000 to plaintiffs, the settlement calls for putting a federal judge in charge of monitoring the liquor commission to ensure it makes progress implementing audit and report recommendations going back to 2005.

The committee recommended the City Council pay $150,000 to settle Taylor’s lawsuit against the police department and Department of Education.

The incident began when her daughter, identified as N.B., was accused of making an “offensive” drawing when she was a 10-year-old girl at Honowai Elementary School in 2020. School officials reported the girl to the police, who “interrogated” her without her mother present, handcuffed her and brought her to the Pearl City police station, according to the complaint.

The drawing depicted a girl holding what appeared to be a firearm with a head on the ground, according to court documents.

But N.B., who is Black and has ADHD, was the only child punished despite other students also being involved in making the drawing, the complaint said, adding that she made the drawing as a coping method after being bullied.

A judge ruled this summer that the police officers involved were not eligible for qualified immunity, a concept that supporters say protects employees from liability in risky jobs but critics say shields those employees from responsibility when they should be held accountable. 

Despite the judge’s ruling this summer, officers deemed ineligible for qualified immunity often don’t have to personally pay for lawsuit settlements, a 2014 study by UCLA law professor Joanna Schwartz says. Tuesday’s recommendation for the city to settle is one example of this.

The City Council usually – but not always – follows through with its earlier recommendations.

One exception was earlier this month, when the committee had recommended settling a lawsuit against the police department over the officer-involved shooting death of Lindani Myeni, an unarmed 29-year-old Black man. The full council postponed the decision after strong last-minute opposition from officials like Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi and Honolulu Prosecutor Steve Alm.

That decision is expected to come up again in early November during the council’s next monthly meeting, Council Chair Tommy Waters said.