City of Baltimore Agrees to Pay $6.4 Million to Family of Freddie Gray

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Jordan Sargent

09/08/15 11:25AM

Filed to: baltimore

Last week, a Baltimore judge upheld charges against six city police officers in relation to the April death of Freddie Gray and also ruled that each would go to trial individually. In the meantime, the city has agreed to pay Gray’s family $6.4 million.

The story was first reported by the Washington Post’s Keith L. Alexander, who notes that the settlement amount will have to be approved by Baltimore’s Board of Estimates, which governs the city’s spending. That board includes Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who in a statement released this afternoon stated that the city believes the settlement does judge the guilt or innocence of the charged officers:

“The proposed settlement agreement going before the Board of Estimates should not be interpreted as a judgment on the guilt or innocence of the officers facing trial,” Rawlings-Blake said in a statement. “This settlement is being proposed solely because it is in the best interest of the city, and avoids costly and protracted litigation that would only make it more difficult for our city to heal and potentially cost taxpayers many millions more in damages.”

According to the city, Gray’s family would receive $2.9 million of the settlement in the current fiscal year, with the remaining $3.6 million to be delivered in the subsequent fiscal year, which begins in July. The deal covers any civil liability on the part of the city, its police department and the individual officers.

This past July, New York City settled with the family of Eric Garner for $5.9 million.

[image via AP]

Contact the author at jordan@gawker.com.

The following replies are approved. To see additional replies that are pending approval, click Show Pending. Warning: These may contain graphic material.

22

hacksto Jordan Sargent 09/08/15 11:31AM

I can only hope they buy up a few blocks of Baltimore, rent out the homes at cost, and spend the rest buying into industries that will employ black folk at a decent enough rate that they’ll have an opportunity to hope.

Wait a minute. That’s what we should have done 50 years ago instead of shipping out every possible job to China. Dang.

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gawkerella hacksto 09/08/15 11:45AM

It’s not THAT much money.

Vanguard Knight hacksto 09/08/15 11:48AM

I would try to get out of America myself.
Been doing research on possible “escape” locations, however, and the pool isn’t very large for people with brown skin.

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hacksto gawkerella 09/08/15 11:49AM

Have you been to Baltimore? Go by train. It’s a bomb site.

A beautiful brownstone, completely redeveloped, in downtown Fells Point goes for around $300k. And that’s within walking distance of anywhere that’s safe. Fells Point is beautiful.

Then see how much they cost up on North Avenue, then go West or East from there. You can buy a block for $1m, no problem.

Dirty Kafir hacksto 09/08/15 11:52AM

And yet, there is plenty of work for illegal immigrants.

64

Sol Jordan Sargent 09/08/15 11:31AM

They should make stuff like this come right out of future wage hikes for police officers. Hit em where it hurts.

45

nramos33 Sol 09/08/15 11:58AM

I disagree, it should come out of their pension fund. Then you’ll have older police officers who are close to retirement and in power to actually care because it’ll directly impact them in a couple of years.

Sol nramos33 09/08/15 12:01PM

I like it!

1

ReburnsABurningReturns nramos33 09/08/15 12:02PM

Good luck winning that lawsuit. Even if you did, it wouldn’t be the current older officers who would be impacted, it would be younger officers who have to deal with the legacy of an underfunded pension that get hosed.

GrizzlyAdamsBeard Sol 09/08/15 12:12PM

This is dumb. You are dumb.

33

tjw Jordan Sargent 09/08/15 11:46AM

The most amazing part of the settlement is that Maryland has a law capping damages that victims can receive when they are injured by police officers at $400,000 ($200,000 prior to April). Because of that reason, the vast majority of Baltimore settlements, even in cases of death, have been for $200,000 or less.

It seems pretty clear that the city was expecting a federal civil rights lawsuit in this case, which could have opened a whole other can of worms including a DOJ investigation. They paid an awful lot of money to make this go away.

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Vanguard Knight tjw 09/08/15 11:51AM

This needs to come out of the grey.

pdxwhy tjw 09/08/15 12:18PM

Hmm.

But hold on: If there was a violation of federal law, wouldn’t the DOJ go forward anyway?

BotanistPrime tjw 09/08/15 12:33PM

I cannot believe there is a law on the books limiting the price of damages from police. Oops sorry we killed y’all, here’s some chump change for your family

15

gabesaves Jordan Sargent 09/08/15 11:47AM

A choice quote missing from your write-up

“In addition to the financial payout, the settlement would also call for the Baltimore police department to begin requiring its officers to wear body cameras.”

Hopefully cameras can limit future payouts, as this isn’t Baltimore’s first.

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Ginger Is A Construct gabesaves 09/08/15 01:15PM

Agreeing that body cameras are important, and should have been mentioned in the article. However, I would think that the “hopeful” thing about body cameras would be that they might “limit” the number of people (black people in particular) killed by cops in the future, not that they might “limit future payouts.”

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gabesaves Ginger Is A Construct 09/08/15 01:55PM

Well yes, one follows the other. I am just saying the settlement is a payout, the terms of the settlement involve use of cameras in the future, and the Gawker article (and subsequent discussion) is framing this as a taxpayer-funded sweepstakes giveaway, so I thought the camera details were important. Hopefully Baltimore police stops killing black people.

MadisonSuicide Ginger Is A Construct 09/09/15 01:29PM

Call me skeptical that the cameras are going to do any good. We catch them now on camera, but they still get away with it. ...and they aren’t exactly mounted in a place that isn’t easy to block the view. Heck, put your own hand over it, jostle it a bit and call it a resisting arrest scuffle.