Woman gets $1.45 million
City settles suit with victim who claimed rape in Detroit van by felon
By David Shepardson / The Detroit NewsDETROIT -- The city of Detroit agreed Thursday to pay $1.45 million to a woman who said she was raped in a Detroit Police Athletic League van by a man with a criminal record.
On Thursday, two days into a civil trial in U.S. District Court in Ann Arbor, the city settled the woman's lawsuit.
The woman said she was mailing letters at Michigan and Cicotte on Feb. 5, 1995, when the incident began. She charged that Wali Abdul-Malik, driving a Police Athletic League van with the Detroit Police Department's shield on the side, signaled to her to approach the vehicle and then told her to get inside. She thought he was a police officer and did as she was told, said her attorney, Geoffrey Fieger.
Fieger charged Abdul-Malik drove her to another location, where she was raped. The man had a 1989 conviction of assault and battery and was wanted by Detroit police on an outstanding prostitution and solicitation warrant.
"They gave him the keys to a van because he said he wanted to take some kids to a Harlem Globetrotters game," Fieger said. "They gave the keys to a man they were searching for."
Soon after the incident, the Police Athletic League instituted a written policy requiring background checks for athletic league volunteers and drivers. Malik was charged criminally and found not guilty by a Wayne Circuit Court jury; the city did not contest that the woman was attacked by Malik at the civil trial. It had asserted that there was a prior policy requiring background checks.
The woman, now 25, has two children and has not been able to work since the incident, Fieger said. She still sees counselors following the attack. Second Deputy Police Chief Paula Bridges, a spokeswoman for the department, did not return calls for comment Thursday.
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