- Video of the accident, as filmed from the police cruiser. Courtesy of The Hook.
Gerry Mitchell has filed a lawsuit against the city and two police officers for $850,000, Courteney Stuart reports for The Hook. In 2007 Mitchell was struck by a county police officer’s patrol vehicle while Mitchell was crossing the street in his wheelchair, and then city police had the gall to go to the hospital—where the victim had been taken by ambulance—and ticket him for jaywalking. The charges against him were dropped a couple of weeks later, on a technicality, though one that city police may have been happy to identify. Mitchell says his health problems have worsened because of the accident, and that his attempts to settle with the city and the county have all been rebuffed.
He was rebuffed? Then good for him. Don’t like hubris and arrogance. Sock it to ’em.
A simple, “I,m sorry” and this could have been avoided. Are the police and the city really this callous or just too afraid of admitting they made a mistake? I believe there’s just too much arrogance and woefully a lack of humanity in city government these days.
It’s unclear to me how he could possibly have any case against the City on this. I can understand suing the County officer who actually ran him down, but the City was just following the law. I don’t think the City acted appropriately or humanely, but how can you sue someone just for giving you a ticket?
Pete,
I could imagine him thinking that he had a case against the city if he believes that there was some type of collusion between the county and city police to sabotage a future civil case against the county by slapping him with an undeserved ticket.
What about pain and suffering, i.e. mental anguish for coming into his hospital room and getting in his face post-trauma of being hit by car? I’d freakin’ blow a gasket, have a heart attack, and then they’d be culpable in a wrongful death suit brought on by my vengeful family members, some of whom are attorneys.
I hope it goes to court and settled behind closed doors.
CVille Eye, what most likely will happen is this:
1 – the defendants (cop shoppe) will fight the claims tooth and nail until the judge sets a definite date for the jury to hear the case. It doesn’t cost the defendants anything to fight for years, the taxpayers are footing their bills.
2 – once a definite date is set for a jury trial, the defendants will ask the plaintiff (Mitchell) if there is any way this case can be settled out of court.
3- the defendants and plaintiff will enter negotiations over a settlement amount.
4- once an amount is agreed upon, the defendants will then insist on a non-disclosure agreement. Namely, the defendants admit no wrongdoing, and the plaintiff will not be allowed to discuss how much he was paid or discuss the wrongdoings any further.
This is the way it works when cop shoppes don’t want their dirty laundry hung out in court with the media sitting on the front row. Contrary to popular belief, the cop shoppes don’t offer settlements just to make lawsuits go away, because like I said, their defense is costing them nothing. The cops usually don’t want the cop shoppe to make a settlement. It causes them lose hours and hours of overtime sitting in a 3 or 4 day jury trial, also being paid by the taxpayers.
Mitchell would be crazy to settle this case for less than anything close to what he is seeking. No jury in the world would view the video and feel it was unavoidable. And no jury in the world would agree with the “aftermath” most likely.