Superior Settles Excessive Force Lawsuit

The city of Superior has reached a $50,000 settlement with a Superior woman who alleged an officer used excessive force during an arrest two years ago, city attorney Frog Prell said.

A police dashboard camera shows Superior woman Natasha Lancour struggling against officer George Gothner and him striking her in January 2014. The incident sparked a year-long review by multiple agencies that found Gothner did not use excessive force. Lancour and her attorney followed up with a civilsuit. The case was set to go to trial later this month, Prell said.

“During the mediation part of the process, the parties obviously saw fit to resolve it short of going to trial,” Prell said.

The settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing on behalf of the city or Superior police, he said.

“Officer Gothner, his conduct was reviewed by the state of Wisconsin by way of the Department of Justice in their training and standards section. That arrest, he was exonerated by way of the use of force that he applied during the arrest that night,” Prell said.

The city’s insurance carrier will cover the cost of the settlement.

Superior Police Chief Nick Alexander said the department is moving forward.

“The department obviously looks at all incidents to look for ways that we can improve and be better,” Alexander said. “We debrief many of our significant calls with the hopes of saying, ‘Hey, did we do a good job? Did we not? What are areas we can improve in?’”

In the meantime, Alexander is working with the University of Wisconsin-Superior on developing a certification program to provide continuing education and cultural training for officers.

“I hope to stay on the course that I’ve been on for the last year-and-a-half on trying to increase community trust, to increase our police department’s interaction with the public, to create an atmosphere of inclusion,” Alexander said.

The Superior Police Department receives about 25,000 calls annually and averages around 2,000 arrests each year. In the last several years, the number of arrests involving use of force has fallen from 27 in 2014 to a handful so far this year, Alexander said.

Lancour and her attorney were not immediately available for comment. Prell said the settlement includes a confidentiality component that prevents them from sharing details with the public.