FERGUSON, MO • It seems there will be some retribution granted to the family of Mike Brown, 18, a victim of a police shooting that sparked outrage in St. Louis three years ago. On Tuesday, a federal judge approved a secret civil settlement of the wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the parents of Michael Brown over his 2014 fatal shooting.
Ferguson’s city attorney, informed the Post-Dispatch the city’s insurance company paid $1.5 million “on behalf of multiple defendants.”
According to U.S. District Judge E. Richard Webber’s who approved it, “the gross amount is “fair and reasonable compensation for this wrongful death claim and is in the best interests of each Plaintiff.”
The settlement will be split between the parents of Mike Brown, Michael Brown Sr. and Lezley McSpadden. The settlement amount will also take care of legal fees accrued during the lawsuit.
On Monday, local publication, The Post-Dispatch reported the settlement would be less than $3 million since the City of Ferguson’s insurance limit is $3 million.
In 2015, Attorney Anthony Gray announced both, Brown Sr. and McSpadden would be suing the city of Ferguson, former Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson, and former police Officer Darren Wilson, who fatally shot Brown, in 2014.
According to their lawsuit, they stated Ferguson’s police culture of pervasive hostility toward African-Americans led to the death of their son on Aug. 9, 2014. Wilson used excessive and unreasonable force, the suit says.
Former Ferguson Chief, Jackson and Wilson blatantly denied the claims in several court documents and interviews conducted during that time. In November 2014, a St. Louis County grand jury and Prosecutor Robert McCullough failed to indict Wilson sparking more outrage throughout the city and increasing racial tensions across the country. Not long after, the U.S. Justice Department declined to prosecute him, but then found the City of Ferguson to be in violation of a variety of Civil Rights of its citizens. The 105-page DOJ report found there were several high ranking officials knowledgeable of the civil rights violations and terminations soon followed.
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