“Treme” actor Rob Brown is settling his explosive “shop-and-frisk” racial profiling lawsuits against Macy’s and the city, new court papers show.
“The court has been informed that the parties have reached a settlement in principle,” Manhattan Federal Judge Lorna Schofield wrote Thursday with regard to Brown’s twin actions against the department store and the city.
Brown, 30, whose breakout performance was in the 2000 movie “Finding Forrester,” claimed he was handcuffed, “paraded” through the Macy’s flagship Herald Square store and detained on June 8, 2013 after being accused of using a fake credit card to buy his mother a $1,300 watch.
The HBO series star slapped Macy’s and the city with false imprisonment, negligent training and civil rights allegations, seeking unspecified money damages and a court order forcing Macy’s and the NYPD to stop the alleged practice of targeting minorities who shop at high-end stores.
A spokeswoman for Macy’s said, “The lawsuits by various plaintiffs who alleged racial profiling by Macy’s have been settled in principle. We are making no further comment.
“Our company strictly prohibits discrimination of any kind and has zero tolerance for racial profiling.”
A lawyer for the city said, “A settlement has been reached in principle, but the details are still being finalized.”
