How gunfire can cost millions
PBSO has paid big in shooting settlements
Shootings by Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies are costing taxpayers more money, with the tally reaching $6 million since the start of 2016, according to a Sun Sentinel review.
In the past 18 months, five cases have been settled for more than $300,000, the previous highest payout for such claims since 2000.
Two pending cases could push the total even higher:
In February 2016, a federal jury awarded $23.1 million to Dontrell Stephens, 24, which was subsequently reduced to $22.4 million. Stephens was paralyzed in a 2013 shooting, when a deputy stopped him for bicycle infraction and mistook his cellphone for a gun. That case is under appeal, and the state Legislature would have to approve a payout above $200,000.
A lawsuit filed last month accuses the
agency of shooting and killing Ricky Whidden, 46, on Dec. 31 in Loxahatchee Groves as he ran away from a deputy during a mentalhealth crisis. Officials say Whidden had a knife and was threatening deputies, but footage captured by a neighbor’s security camera appears to show him running away.
Teri Barbera, a sheriff’s spokeswoman, did not respond to questions from the Sun Sentinel. In the past, officials have declined to discuss legal settlements, while noting they are not an admission of wrongdoing and are made in the best interest of taxpayers.
Attorney Stuart Kaplan, who represents Whidden’s family, is citing previous lawsuits filed against the department to argue that Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has created a culture of excessive force, a claim that has been dismissed in the past by federal judges.
Six of the eight cases settled by the office since the start of 2016 involved people with a mental illness or a developmental disorder who were killed or wounded by deputies.
“They have a warrior type of mentality where they shoot and kill first and ask questions later,” Kaplan said. “I think we need to get away from this warrior mentality. Being in mental distress is not a crime.”
Last year, the Sheriff’s Office settled a fatal shooting case for $1.7 million, a case where an 18-year-old West Boynton man with autism threw lava rocks at a deputy.
Another case resolved for $562,500 accused a deputy of using excessive force when he shot and killed a 28-year-old West Boca man who held a screwdriver during a mental-health crisis.
John Kazanjian, president of the union that represents deputies, said the growing settlement amounts have nothing to do with improper training.
Instead, the payouts reflect the legal realities of a public growing increasingly cynical toward the police, he said.
“I really think the sheriff is wary about juries right now,” Kazanjian said. “You can see what the atmosphere is nationwide toward police officers.”
So far, federal judges have dismissed allegations that the Sheriff ’s Office has a systemic culture of excessive force.
To succeed, someone suing the agency “must demonstrate that the deputies’ misconduct in using excessive force was so persistent and widespread in the department as to practically have the force of an official policy,” federal Judge Daniel Hurley wrote in a January 2016 opinion.
That standard had not been met, he wrote.
It’s extremely difficult to prove such allegations in court “unless there is some smoking-gun policy,” said Michelle Jacobs, a professor of law at the University of Florida.
Making comparisons to show one department uses much more force than another is difficult, too, because until recently, departments didn’t have to provide any information on police shootings to federal agencies, she said.
“They just don’t have good data on when police kill,” Jacobs said.
Through public records requests, the Tampa Bay Times compiled a database of police shooting cases from 2009-2014.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office shot 45 people during that time period, compared with 34 people shot by the Broward Sheriff’s Office and 86 people shot by the Miami-Dade Police Department, according to the database.
While pursuing claims in civil courts, families have demanded officers face charges in criminal court as well.
Criminal charges for police officers and deputies involved in on-duty killings are extremely rare in Palm Beach County and across the nation.
Until last year an officer hadn’t faced criminal charges for an on-duty shooting in Palm Beach County since 1993.
Manslaughter and attempted murder charges were filed last year against Nouman Raja, now a former Palm Beach Gardens officer, who’s accused of “grossly negligent” conduct in the killing of Corey Jones, 31.
Jones was shot while stranded on Interstate 95 because of a broken-down car.
In a separate case, a Broward County grand jury indicted a deputy in an onduty shooting in December 2015 — the first such charges since 1980. A judge later dismissed the charges, and the case is being appealed.
Officers also almost never pay civil damages out of their own pockets, according to research by the University of California, Los Angeles. Researchers found that only 0.02 percent of money paid in police shooting settlements nationwide over a six-year span came directly from officers.
Sgt. Adams Lin, the deputy who shot and paralyzed Stephens in the case that netted a $22.4 million jury verdict, had his car, clothes and furniture hauled away to help satisfy the debt he owed to the man he shot.
But a federal magistrate ordered the property be returned and barred any future seizures at his house.
Typically, settlement money either comes from the budgets of law enforcement agencies or through an insurance policy, according to UCLA’s research. Barbera did not respond to a question asking how the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office handles settlements.
From 2000 until the start of 2016, the largest settlement made in a case involving a person shot by a Palm Beach County deputy was $300,000, according to the Sun Sentinel’s review.
That case involved the 2008 killing of Marino Ramos, a 35-year-old migrant construction worker. Investigators suspected Deputy Samuel Peixoto, 38, cut himself to make it appear he had been attacked. The deputy killed himself as criminal charges loomed.
An 2015 analysis by The Palm Beach Post found the Sheriff ’s Office had paid out only $1.7 million since 2000 to people who had been shot or their families. The $6.2 million in settlements since the start of 2016 is more than three times greater than that amount.
Bradshaw, who was elected to his fourth term in August, has made some reforms as he’s moved to settle cases, while resisting others.
In an interview with the Sun Sentinel before the election, Bradshaw said he created a specialized unit that pairs mental health professionals with deputies trained for such encounters.
Earlier this year, he signed an agreement that allows for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate deputy shootings, instead of using investigators from within the same department.
But Bradshaw hasn’t responded to calls from county commissioners to equip deputies with body cameras. He also dismissed requests to establish a citizens review committee, which would give civilians more oversight. He’s promoted at least one deputy involved in a controversial shooting.
In other high-profile police shooting cases, North Charleston, S.C., paid $6.5 million to the family of Walter Scott, an unarmed man who was shot as he ran from police.
Cleveland agreed to pay $6 million to the family of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old who was shot and killed while holding a pellet gun. The family of Philando Castile, a Minnesota man shot and killed during a traffic stop, received $3 million.
It’s far from certain whether civil payouts will alter policing tactics and transparency, Jacobs said. Almost all the agreements stipulate officers did nothing wrong, she said.
“I think at a lot of places it is seen as the cost of doing businesses,” Jacobs said.