Two Columbia University custodians who were assaulted during an anti-Israel mob takeover have settled with the school for an undisclosed amount.
Lester Wilson and Mario Torres, whose civil rights complaints triggered a federal probe, took part in a $220 million settlement package recently brokered between Columbia and the Trump administration.
While the total settlement covers wide-ranging civil rights violations, $20 million was set aside specifically for employees.
The two janitors’ settlement came from that fund, according to the New York Post.
Despite the deal, Wilson and Torres are not backing down from their legal battle against the anti-Israel mob of over 40 protesters that they say trapped and brutalized them during the infamous Hamilton Hall riot.
Columbia’s multimillion-dollar settlement followed the Trump administration’s decision to restore funding after the university faced accusations of racial and civil rights misconduct.
Wilson and Torres, who are not Jewish, claim the school exposed them to dangerous conditions as anti-Israel protests escalated following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
“The university set up the situation and ended up putting them into that situation,” Brandeis Center President Alyza Lewin said. “Now the issue is holding accountable those who carried it out.”
Both janitors were injured in the