Jury awards victim $23M
Court finds deputy used excessive fo1rce in shooting
Dontrell Stephens wiped tears from his eyes when a federal jury awarded him $23.1millionWednesday.
“The healing process can finally begin,” Stephens’ attorney Jack Scarola said. “This is extremely emotional for him. It’s been an enormously difficult journey.”
The eight-person jury found Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputy Adams Lin acted unreasonably or with excessive force when he shot the unarmed black man four times in four seconds during a traffic stop on Sept. 13, 2013, west of West Palm Beach.
The fourth bullet injured Stephens’ spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed and dependent on a wheelchair.
“Tell them God is good,” said Terrell Stephens, one of his brother’s caretakers. “God knows exactly what happened.”
Dontrell Stephens, now 22, has a long
road ahead to collect any money. The jury award is more than the state cap of $200,000, so the Florida Legislature must approve the final dollar amount. That process can take years. Additionally, attorneys for the Sheriff’s Office indicated before the verdict that theywould appeal.
Lin and both attorneys for the Sheriff’s Office declined to comment after the verdict in federal court in Fort Lauderdale. But late Wednesday night, the agency released a statement that called the verdict “both shocking and disappointing.” It also confirmed it planned to appeal.
The Sheriff ’s Office’s statement also noted how Lin is “a minority himself,” andthat as a deputy, Linhad “never used deadly force prior to his unfortunate encounterwithMr. Stephens,” even though Lin had worked for many years in the high-crime neighborhood where the shooting happened.
The State Attorney’s Office cleared Lin of any criminal wrongdoing. He has since been promoted to sergeant.
Outside the courtroom, Scarola said the Sheriff’s Office offered to settle the case a week before trial for $1.5 million for medical care over two years, but Stephens’ attorneys declined. Stephens’ attorneys had asked the jury for $24.1million to cover past and future medical bills, pain and suffering, disability and emotional and mental distress, among other things.
“Dontrell Stephens knows he didn’t do anything to justify being shot,” Stephens’ attorney Darryl Lewis said. The money will help him “make the most of a life filled with pain and misery.”
Scarola said the jury madea big-picture decision. They deliberated for threeandhours before returning their unanimous verdict.
“This is a tremendous and extremely important victory for the community as a whole,” Scarola said.
In closing statements Wednesday morning, Scarola painted Lin as an “overly aggressive police officer” with “callous disregard for life and limb.”
Sheriff’s attorney SummerBarranco said Stephens did not respond to Lin’s instructions after he was pulled over for a traffic infraction on his bicycle. Stephens testified that hewas a “little bit” high and had marijuana in his shoe at the time of the traffic stop.
When Stephens appeared to turn and pull an object frombehind him, Lin had reason to believe his life was in danger, she told the jury. As Stephens lay on the ground bleeding, Lin was still searching for thegunhe was sure he had seen.
Then, he said he had to “flip a switch” to try to save his life. Using a medical pack fromhis trunk, heused a pressure dressing on Stephens’ wounds. Lin said he and another deputy tried to comfort Stephens, who was calling for help.
While Lin erred in thinking a cellphonewas a gun, it was a “reasonable mistake,” Barranco said.
Dashboard-camera video from Lin’s cruiser was central to the civil trial. It was sliced into 30 photos per second.
Stephens’ attorneys argued the video shows Stephens was shot in the back with the final shot.
Barranco argued the video doesn’t tell the whole story because it only shows one vantage point. The video doesn’t show Stephens with his hands over his head although he is not pictured in two seconds of the video.
Lin testified that he would shoot again in the same circumstances. “It’s time for the jury to rise up and say, ‘No you won’t,’” Lewis urged the jury in closing statements.
The six women and two men of the jury declined to comment as they left the courthouse Wednesday evening.
The Sheriff ’s Office agreed to separate settlements recently.
The agency agreed to pay $562,000 to the family of Matthew Pollow, a mentally ill 28-year-old fatally shot in West Boca by a deputy, according to a lawyer representing the man’s estate. The Sheriff’s Office and Pollow’s family had offered varying accounts of what happened the night of the shooting.
The Sheriff’s Office also will reportedly pay $450,000 to the guardianship of Jeremy Hutton, a then-17-year-old with Down syndrome who was shot by a deputy at a Riviera Beach intersection in 2010.
The Sheriff’s Office did not respond to email requests for comment on those cases.