WESTBROOK — Vincent Oden of Lewiston settled his lawsuit against the city for $40,000, according to city officials.

The city agreed to the settlement with Oden Feb. 1, but the amount of the settlement was not disclosed at that time.

The city is responsible for $10,000 of the total in the form of its insurance deductible, with the insurer paying the remainder to Oden.

Oden, who is Black, filed a civil suit in Androscoggin County Superior Court in February 2020, saying he was the victim of racial bias when police stopped and arrested him in Westbrook in 2018.

As he drove into an area in Westbrook where firetrucks were responding to a snapped utility pole, firefighters waved him through, but he was stopped by a Westbrook police officer who hadn’t stopped similar vehicles with white drivers passing through the same area, Oden said in the lawsuit.

He was given a field sobriety test, which he passed, the lawsuit said, but he was arrested for possession of medicine that was prescribed to him. He was jailed, and bail conditions prevented him from working.

The charges against Oden were dropped.

The settlement officially dismisses the civil case, according to the legal agreement.

“An issue was raised, it was dealt with through a settlement rather than a trial setting, and I think the issues were adequately addressed,” City Administrator Jerre Bryant previously told the American Journal.

“There was no finding of any fault or inappropriate behavior from the city officers. The resolution is acceptable to both parties,” Bryant said.

Oden did not respond to American Journal messages seeking his comment.

The Westbrook City Council is currently awaiting the results of a Saint Joseph’s College analysis of the Police Department’s data on arrest records and race.

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