MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The attorney for George Floyd’s family said Friday that a $27 million settlement of a federal lawsuit by the city of Minneapolis is the largest pretrial civil rights …
The attorney for George Floyd’s family said Friday that a $27 million settlement of a federal lawsuit by the city of Minneapolis is the largest pretrial civil rights settlement ever. The settlement was announced as jury selection continued in the trial of Derek Chauvin, a white former city police officer accused in the May 25 death of Floyd, who was Black. Floyd family attorney Ben Crump said the settlement “sends a powerful message that Black lives do matter and police brutality against people of color must end.” Some settlements in police-involved deaths are kept private. Often a settlement includes money but specifies there was no admission of guilt. Some such lawsuits end up in court where a jury can award massive settlements that are whittled down on appeal. Here is a look at other high-profile cases of police-involved deaths of Black and brown people and the settlements: In September, the city of Louisville, Kentucky, agreed to pay Breonna Taylor’s family $12 million and reform police practices. Taylor was shot to death by officers acting on a no-knock warrant. She and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were roused from bed by police. Walker said he fired once at the officers, thinking they were intruders. Investigators say police were returning fire when they shot Taylor several times. The settlement stipulated reforms on how warrants are handled by police. No officers have been charged in Taylor’s death, but one officer faces criminal charges for bullets fired into another occupied apartment. Taylor’s mother has filed complaints against the police, seeking an investigation into whether policies were violated in the investigation that led officers to her daughter’s door.
