Thats not the way it works. The settlement was made by the Baltimore Board of Estimates, which Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is the head off. It came directly out of city funds. They made that decision for one reason and on reason only. If it went to court, the city would have lost a lot more money.
Baltimore approves $6.4 million settlement for Freddie Gray's family
If it came out of city fund it was the taxpayers that gave their hard earned taxes for the fund.
In many states they have a law on the books that no civil trial or award will be paid out before the criminal trial/s are held. MD should immediately adopt the same law.
Respectfully, I don't agree that they would have had to payout more money. If they awarded anything at all it would have been much lower, imo.- In a civil trial the jury can weigh if the deceased person had any part in his/her own death and can assign a percentage of blame to them when weighing the case. I have been on one civil trial and even though the threshold is by the preponderance of the evidence we all were absolutely sure the plaintiff had not proved their case and knew some of their witnesses had be caught lying under oath. The plaintiffs were wanting millions in that case too.
No one is going to award millions of dollars to someone unless they are very sure they are at fault based on the evidence presented. And the rules are different in a civil trial. I read in this case the defense wanted to bring in others to testify that FG had hurt himself on purpose before this incident. IIRC, the defense also had a witness that was told by FG shortly before this happened that he had hurt his back. Those witnesses were ruled too prejudicial against FG/state so the Judge disallowed them. However; it is much different in civil trials with the threshold being much lower and a lot more information is allowed in about the person who died. Many Plaintiff lawyers lose their case in court. None of them are a slam dunk for the Plaintiff lawyer. I think in the coming days we may see what all the defense wanted to enter that the Judge didn't allow. More is learned afterwards about a case based on what was deemed too prejudicial. I think this one will be the same and I hope the media ask for the evidence that never came in due to the rulings by the Judge.
There was nothing preventing Blake from waiting for the criminal trials to be held before she signed off on the payout. Paying money before any criminal trial sends the wrong message and is saying the defendants are already guilty before they even have their chance in court to prove otherwise.
I don't think the civil jury would have awarded near this amount of money and certainly not 6.4 million. Some also thought MM had the evidence against this 6 officers when it turned out they didn't have a shred of evidence. The evidence or lack of would be the same entered in a civil trial. The lack of evidence wouldn't change. There would still be proof there was no rough ride with over 25+ camera footage showing it not to be true. There would still be a lack of evidence that any of the officers had anything to do with causing the death of FG.
Believe me if there had been actually any evidence to prove her immediate accusations MM would have shown it. Judge Williams repeatedly asked for the evidence they had. Instead she had her ADA stand up there and lie to the Judge about the 'rough ride' that never happened. She should be disbarred for that. She should also be disbarred for withholding exculpatory evidence. That is a serious Brady violation which can not only get her disbarred but charged with prosecutorial misconduct.
I just don't see how any civil jury would come up with a 6.4 million dollar figure for a man who had never had held a legitimate job and had only sold drugs on the streets. Part of the award would take into consideration how much money he would have been able to make during his lifetime if he had lived. So did Rawlings-Blake decide he would have made those millions by selling illegal drugs on the streets?
Another thing is strange. The award was paid out to his parents yet he was an adult. Usually parents of adult children aren't awarded civil payouts unless they can prove their deceased child supported them monetarily. Did that happen? Did RB ask them to prove they depended on FG for their financial survival?
Rawlings-Blake shouldn't have ever paid out this ridiculous amount of money. Of course she shouldn't have ever given permission to the violent protestors to burn and loot her city either. The city of BM should sue the Mayor in civil court for the damage that was done by her urging the protestors to act out violently and destroy.
I am sure the six officers would have been listed as the defendants should a civil trial had been held like it should have been after the criminal trials were over. I don't think one of them would have said they wanted the civil case settled and would want to go to trial and let a jury decide.
IMO, FG hurt himself thinking he could get funds from the city. He had already won a lawsuit for having dangerous levels of lead poisoning in his system. The worst side affect for this particular poisoning is it makes the bones very fragile and brittle. I think he got up and rammed his head into the side of the van not noticing the bolt sticking out. He probably had not educated himself enough to know how brittle the poisoning had left his bones. His injuries are similar to someone who dives in shallow water of about two feet with the head coming to an abrupt stop while the body is still in motion.
What I cant begin to understand either is why MM was even elected DA over a large city like BM. From what I have read she never had any experience in practicing criminal law nor had she ever tried a criminal case before being elected. Wasn't she some kind of insurance or medical lawyer before being elected?
