No dissent as council approves Ford case settlement

Pittsburgh City Council voted 7-0 Tuesday to approve a $5.5 million settlement with Leon Ford and his lawyers, nearly six years after an officer-involved shooting-left him paralyzed.

Mr. Ford sued in federal court in 2013, the year after city police Detective David Derbish shot him. In a joint statement last month, Mayor Bill Peduto and Mr. Ford said they had reached “anami-cable resolution.”

That resolution structures payments from the city over three years: $2 million in 2018, $2 million in 2019 and $1.5 million in 2020. Only the Rev. Ricky Burgess was absent when council voted to finalize the settlement. (One of the nine council seats — the seat representing District 8 in the East End — remains empty pending a special election March 6.)

Council members held a closed-door session Jan. 30 about the settlement, and only one member directly commented on the agreement during the Tuesday meeting. Councilwoman Darlene Harris said she did not object to the settlement or its amount, but she took issue with a Jan. 17 news release from the Peduto administration that announced-the arrangement.

The release did not mention council’s role in finalizing the settlement, although Mr. Peduto’s press office immediately emphasized that detail to reporters at the time.

“No settlement is certain or final prior to approval by city council,” Mrs. Harris said Tuesday. A Peduto adversary, she lost to him last year in the Democratic may oral primary race.

A lengthy trial last fall ended with the jury deadlocked on Detective Derbish’s liability in the Ford shooting. A second trial had been set for January. The jury rejected Mr. Ford’s claim of assault and battery against another officer, Detective Andrew Miller.

Mr. Ford was shot after a traffic stop in Highland Park.

“We are very happy for Leon and his family to have closure so he can move forward and be the great and successful man he is destined to be,” Monte Rabner, oneof Mr. Ford’s lawyers, said.