The city council approved the settlement resolutions Thursday night.
TRENTON -- The city council has approved civil lawsuit settlements with two Trenton residents who sued the city and police department alleging excessive force by officers.
The city will pay a total of $218,000 to settle the suits. The city council approved the settlement resolutions Thursday night.
Each case was filed in U.S. District Court in Trenton.
The city will pay Kenia Leiva $43,000.
She alleged in a civil lawsuit complaint that a now-former police officer, Victoria Berrios, drunkenly attacked her following an argument at a city bar.
Two police officers who responded to the incident, Leiva said, did not stop the attack.
Berrios was investigated by internal affairs authorities, but a month after the alleged attack, the Trenton police department laid off 105 officers by seniority, and Berrios was one of them.
As a private citizen, Berrios was indicted on three felonies, two aggravated assault charges and a burglary charge, for allegedly entering Leiva's residence during the attack, records show.
Lawsuit alleging attack by Trenton officer continues
The Mercer County Prosecutor's Office said Berrios was accepted into the Pretrial Intervention Program (PTI) 2014 and successfully completed the program.
The city will pay Lael Queen $175,000 to settle allegations that he was attacked by a police K-9 unit on the 4th of July 2014 in North Trenton.
Queen alleged in his suit that he was leaving a laundromat when he saw Trenton police officers verbally assaulting a woman, and pulled out his cellphone to record the encounter.
The officers then turned their attention to Queen, he alleged, and accused him of interfering with their investigation.
The officers then beat and kicked him, and set a K-9 dog after him, which bit him on the leg.
Records show that in both cases, lawyers representing the city of Trenton recently filed motions to have the cases dismissed.
City officials were not available to comment on why they decided to settle the suits.
And Trenton police say they do not comment on such types of lawsuits.
Cristina Rojas may be reached at crojas@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @CristinaRojasTT. Find NJ.com on Facebook.