The woman who met her future husband right after she was pepper sprayed during an 2011 Occupy Wall Street protest has settled with the city for $55,000, her attorney said Monday.
In September 2011, Kaylee Dedrick was pepper sprayed by Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna as she was waiting with other protesters inside a police barricade, said her attorney, Ronald Kuby. Dedrick was one of six protesters who received a total of more than $333,000 in settlements for the use of pepper spray.
But Dedrick’s story has a happy ending: after she fell a medic named Rob Grodt, who would eventually become her husband, rushed over to treat her.
“He looked into her watering, bleary red eyes and she looked into his beautiful brown ones,” Kuby said. “And before you knew it, there was a little Occubaby.”
The couple lives with their dog and 2-year-old daughter upstate, near Dedrick’s family, he added.
“It was in the best interest of the city to settle these cases,” said a spokesman for the city’s law department.
Bologna was docked 10 vacation days and then reassigned to Staten Island, according to reports.
“She’s satisfied. The amount was reasonable,” Kuby said about the settlement. “I think what she remains upset about is the fact that District Attorney [Cyrus] Vance never prosecuted Bologna.”
