Penn State to pay $25,000 to settle lawsuit over its response to 2018 tailgate
Penn State agreed to shell out $25,000 to settle a lawsuit over its response to a rowdy 2018 tailgate party outside Beaver Stadium, according to a court document filed earlier this month.
The university and its police department will send the money to William and Kathleen Deegan, a husband and wife duo from New York.
The former said he was kicked in the head by a state police horse and fell onto a vehicle before the Nittany Lions’ football game against Ohio State. He was treated for six fractured ribs and headaches, attorney Chris Durso wrote in the document filed Sept. 13.
The university declined comment Thursday.
“In all honesty, they felt that the police — especially the state police — were extremely heavy-handed,” Durso said Thursday. “They were not the subjects of arrest or suspicion or anything like that.”
The party among hundreds of people was broken up by a state police helicopter that flew so low it sent tents and other debris flying. The university suspended use of helicopters to make announcements outside the stadium.
A state police officer was treated for a broken wrist after arresting a man who allegedly struck a state police horse.
At least five men were charged. One pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts of failure to disperse and resisting arrest, as well as a summary offense of public drunkenness. Four others faced misdemeanor liquor law violations.
The lawsuit against the state police and the state police corporal who was riding the horse that kicked Deegan is ongoing. The trial is scheduled to begin in May.
“He was (innocent) at this tailgate. He’s not even drinking; he doesn’t even drink. And he gets rammed in the head by a state police horse,” Durso said. “Not because there’s a violent felony taking place, but because they’re trying to arrest a drunk kid.”
This story was originally published September 23, 2021 at 11:24 AM.