Jury asked to award up to $20M in shooting case

Jurors in the Seth Adams wrongful death case were asked Monday to send a $20 million message to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and the undercover sergeant who shot him in 2012.

Jury deliberations began Monday afternoon after four weeks of testimony in the civil trial aimed at determining whether the shooting in a Loxahatchee Groves nursery, where Adams worked and lived, was justified.

Adams family attorney Wallace McCall said the evidence shows Sgt. Michael Custer’s account of shooting after he was attacked by Adams is a “web of lies,” which the sheriff’s office tried to cover up.

“A shooting based on a web of lies cannot be justified,” said McCall, who during his closing arguments called Custer a coward and a bully.

But Custer maintains that he was grabbed on the throat by Adams during the encounter. Custer said he opened fire because he thought Adams had reached into a truck for a weapon. Custer endured a “life and death” situation and had the right to use lethal force, even though it turned out Adams wasn’t holding a weapon, attorney Richard Giuffreda, who represents Custer and the sheriff’s office, said during his closing statement.

“If this incident happened the way Sgt. Custer described, the shooting was justified,” Giuffreda said.

Jurors are now considering whether Custer violated Adams’ civil rights by using excessive or unreasonable force. If so, the sheriff ’s office, led by Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, could be found liable for Custer’s actions.

Jurors are also being asked to determine if Custer and the sheriff’s office destroyed or disposed of the cell phone Custer had the night of the shooting. The Adams family had wanted to check the phone for potential evidence, but it went missing during the investigation.

Jury deliberations started just before 3 p.m. Monday and they stopped for the day about 5 p.m. The nine-member jury is set to resume deliberations at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

If jurors side with the Adams family, they have been asked to award between $5 and $10 million in damages to Lydia Adams, Seth Adams’ mother, and between $5 and $10 million to his father, Richard Adams.

“The bigger the loss, the more compensation is required,” McCall told jurors. “Your verdict is going to have to be significant to balance the scales of justice.”

Custer on May 16, 2012 was leading an undercover patrol when he parked his unmarked black Ford Explorer at the A One Stop Garden Shop nursery at 1950 A Road.

Seth Adams, driving a blue Ford Ranger, arrived about 11:40 p.m. at the nursery owned by Adams’ brother and sister-in-law, who also lived there.

Custer, who was wearing plain clothes, testified that Adams immediately started screaming at him. Cuter said he identified himself as an officer, but that Adams rushed toward him and grabbed his neck.