Family accepts $2.5M in death

Unarmed man was killed by undercover officer

Claiming vindication but not justice, the family of an unarmed man killed by an undercover Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s officer accepted a $2.5 million settlement in the death of Seth Adams.

The Adams family attorneys said the settlement was the largest wrongful death payout ever by the Sheriff ’s Office.

Adams’ family announced the wrongful death lawsuit settlement on Monday — the day before the five-year anniversary of the fatal shooting in the Loxahatchee Groves nursery where Adams worked and lived.

The Adams family billed the settlement as an acknowledgment by the Sheriff ’s Office that the shooting was unjustified.

“I miss my boy,” Adams’ mother, Lydia Adams, said. “We have been given a life sentence to grieve his loss.”

The settlement comes two months after a mistrial in the trial over the family’s $20 million wrongful death and excessive force lawsuit against the Sheriff’s Office and Sgt. Michael Custer, who fired the shots that killed Adams.

The Adams family on Monday maintained that, though the month-long trial didn’t produce a verdict, it succeeded in bringing to light their concerns about the shooting of their son and faults in the Sheriff’s Office investigation.

While closing the civil case, the Adams family is “continuing to pursue justice,” said his father Richard Adams.

The Adamses renewed their call for State Attorney Dave Aronberg or federal prosecutors to pursue criminal charges against Custer.

In addition to seeking criminal charges, the Adams family called for the Sheriff ’s Office to start mandating body cameras on all deputies as well as establishing an independent agency to investigate all officer-involved shootings.

“We have been tormented beyond measure,” Richard Adams said. “The shooting of Seth by Sgt. Custer was unjustified.”

The Sheriff’s Office doesn’t comment on legal settlements “because each case has its own set of unique legal complexities and issues,” spokesman Eric Davis said.

“Each case is settled based on those complexities and always in the best interest of the Palm Beach County taxpayers,” Davis said.

No criminal charges are planned because no new evidence has emerged to change investigators’ finding that Custer’s actions were justified, State Attorney’s Office spokesman Mike Edmondson said Monday.

“There have been a number of reviews by our office,” Edmondson said.

During the trial, Senior U.S. District Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley criticized the Sheriff’s Office for its handling of the shooting investigation, calling it a “disgrace” and listing deficiencies he considered “simply shocking.”

Some of the problems Hurley mentioned — outside of the presence of the jury — were investigators not taking Custer’s boots into evidence, failing to measure the distance between Custer’s SUV and Adams’ truck, and also not asking Custer to show how he held the gun when he fired.

On May 16, 2012, Custer was on an undercover patrol when he parked his unmarked, black Ford Explorer in a parking lot at the A One Stop Garden Shop nursery at 1950 A Road in Loxahatchee Groves.

At 11:40 p.m., Adams, 24, pulled into the parking lot at the nursery owned by Adams’ brother and sister-inlaw, who also lived on the property with him.

Custer, who was wearing plain clothes, testified that Adams started screaming at him, got out of his truck and moved toward Custer’s SUV.

After a brief struggle, Custer said he broke away from Adams, pulled his gun and ordered Adams to get on the ground, but he went back to his truck instead. Custer, 47, said he fired because he thought Adams had grabbed a weapon from the cab of his truck.

After the shooting, no weapon was found in the cab of Adams’ truck or on him.

Adams, shot once in the right arm and twice in the chest, died two hours after the shooting.

The Adams family attorneys disputed that he attacked Custer as well as investigators’ assertions that Adams was drunk during the fatal encounter. They said the evidence showed Adams hadn’t reached into his truck, and that a smashed bullet and bullet casings fired from Custer’s gun show the shooting occurred toward the rear of the truck.

The Sheriff’s Office investigation of the shooting was a “whitewash and a cover-up,” Adams family attorney Wallace McCall said.

“When a young man comes home at night on his own property and he’s unarmed, and he’s shot and killed, something is not right,” McCall said.

Concerns raised during the trial, such as Custer’s cell phone going missing after the shooting, show issues prosecutors could consider for criminal charges, McCall said.

“We’ve done the work for them. The case is laid out,” McCall said.

The Sheriff ’s Office reaching a settlement with the Adams family is no reason for prosecutors to consider criminal charges against Custer, Police County Police Benevolent Association President John Kazanjian said.

Police work can be a “contact sport” and Custer’s actions were justified, according to Kazanjian.

“This guy is all by himself and [he’s] got a drunk who is trying to kick the crap out of him,” Kazanjian said. “We have to do what we have to do.”

The judge’s criticism about the shooting investigation was out of line, Kazanjian said.

“There were some mistakes in the investigation ... but by no means was there any cover-up,” Kazanjian said.

The settlement with the Adams family follows several lawsuits last year against the Sheriff’s Office that resulted in money awarded to victims of shootings and other violent encounters with the agency’s employees.

A federal jury awarded Dontrell Stephens, who was shot and paralyzed, more than $23.1 million in his case against the Sheriff ’s Office and Deputy Adams Lin. The court lowered that to $22.4 million and the case is under appeal. Stephens has not received any money, his attorney said Monday.

In other cases, the Sheriff ’s Office paid settlements including:

$1.7 million to the parents of a mentally ill 18-year-old, Michael Camberdella, who was shot and killed by Deputy William Goldestein in West Boynton.

$550,000 to settle an excessive force and wrongful arrest lawsuit filed by retired Deputy U.S. Marshal Shawn Conboy against the agency and three deputies.

$562,000 to the family of Matthew Pollow, a mentally ill 28-year-old who was fatally shot by a deputy in West Boca.

$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 “substantial settlements” the Sheriff’s Office keeps agreeing to “are indicative of a serious problem in the culture of the department,” said Jack Scarola, the attorney representing Stephens.

“Settling avoids establishing precedent that creates serious problems for the Sheriff ’s Office in future federal civil rights actions,” Scarola said.

The settlement with the Sheriff’s Office allows the Adams family to be paid the $2.5 million without state approval. They agreed to two payments of $1.25 million, the first immediately and the second in December.

The timing of the Seth Adams settlement, announced the day after Mother’s Day and on the eve of the shooting’s fiveyear anniversary, was yet another reminder that he died “in the prime of his life,” his mother said.

Amid her grief, Lydia Adams said she prays for Custer and wants him to “come clean.”

“I’m very angry. I’m very broken,” Lydia Adams said. “My son should be here.”

AMY BETH BENNETT/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Lydia Adams wipes away tears as her husband, Richard, speaks during a news conference at their attorney's Palm Beach Gardens office. “I miss my boy,” Lydia Adams said.