'We have a Mission' friends are just as bastard in court as they are playing Easy Company.
Short version: "It's not our fault! Those people shouldn't have been breaking the law(they actually weren't but don't let that mess with our story)!"
The family filed a federal lawsuit for damages that ended last month in a
settlement (paid for by taxpayers) not only totaling less than the
amount of the infant’s medical bills, but split up between
family members. Furthermore, the conditions of the settlement included
restrictions on further litigation pursued by the family in order to
ensure that taxpayers, not the individuals who almost killed an infant,
will be responsible for any further payout.
Of course. No matter how they screwed up, the officers must be protected.
'Disgusting' doesn't really cover this, does it?
1 comment:
My question is: why did they accept a settlement?
This wasn't a court ruling, this was a settlement before trial, which has to be agreed to by all parties.
This seems to be a case that, were I an ambulance chasing personal injury lawyer, I would be PRAYING to bring before a jury.
Granted, the Sheriff's argument was pretty slimy, but that's par for the course. Any time they kill an innocent, they were just following departmental procedure. Any time one of their own gets killed in a botched raid, it's because those evil suspects were lying in wait just hoping to ambush a poor unsuspecting police officer.
The family in this case should have never agreed to the settlement. Perhaps they just saw dollar signs? They certainly didn't have competent counsel (unless there is something deeper going on here, but there's no indication of that in the story).
Of course, they will never be expected to actually pay those medical bills. Splitting it up between the family members was perhaps a way to keep the hospital from getting it all. I would imagine they can only go after the money directly paid to the patient...but I could be wrong about that.
Anyway, the point is that ire directed at the courts is misdirected. The Sheriff's department definitely deserves it, but the parents accepted the settlement, that's not the court's doing.
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