$2 Million Settlement for City Officials Inciting and Covering Up a Murder

Lillie Belle Allen, an innocent black woman on a family trip to York, Pennsylvania, was murdered on July 21, 1969 as a result of local police officers inciting and arming a racist mob “to kill as many n****** as you can.”  For more than thirty years, the City of York’s Police Department covered up its officers’ involvement, as well as the identity of the shooters who took her life. Based on a death bed confession of one of the killers, the District Attorney reopened the case and two men were convicted of Lillie Belle’s murder in 2002.  In January 2003 – thirty three years after her death – Harold Goodman and his team filed a civil rights claim against York on behalf of Lillie Belle Allen’s family.  After overcoming the legal challenges faced in a many decades old case, Attorney Goodman pressed forward to trial.  In 2005, the City of York settled the case, issued an apology to the Allen family, and commemorated Ms. Allen’s life in several City facilities.