$495,000 settlement in cop's punch of bystander

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.startribune.com/local/55806907.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUl

By ROCHELLE OLSON, Star Tribune

Last update: August 28, 2009 - 11:18 PM

One punch by a Minneapolis police officer to a man walking to his mailbox cost the city almost $500,000.

After a closed-door City Council meeting with Mayor R.T. Rybak and Police Chief Tim Dolan, the council publicly voted 12-0 Friday to pay Eldridge Chatman $495,000 in a settlement over a punch from officer Craig Taylor. Chatman required two brain surgeries because of bleeding in his head caused by a subdural hematoma.

Chatman, now 53, was living in public housing and on assistance when he stepped out of his apartment shortly before noon on April 11, 2008. As he walked down the hall, he encountered seven Minneapolis police officers in helmets and goggles crouched and preparing to execute a high-risk search warrant, possibly involving narcotics, in an apartment near Chatman's, according to a federal lawsuit he filed.

There's no dispute that Taylor was the lead officer and that both he and the man behind him carried submachine guns. Although Taylor tried to signal to Chatman to get out of the way, Chatman remained in front of the doorway the officers sought to enter. Taylor then struck Chatman once in the head.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. That'll probably cover one of the brain surgeries...

[exboyfil]

2. If he was living in public housing then he was probably on Medicaid

or the hospital picked up the tab.

How much does he get and how much does Medicaid/the hospital get. What if the hospital already sold the debt to a collection agency?

Lots of interesting questions. I had the same ones when the 9/11 payments came out. I suspect most of the professionals working in the Towers had pretty good life insurance (probably in the range of $500K to $1M). Where the insurance companies made hole by the payments or did the families get to double dip?

[blondeatlast]

5. "...did the families get to double dip?" Even if they did, I don't care.

I wonder why you do?

[Warren Stupidity]

3. On edit: brain damage from beating by cop costs Minneapolis only 500,000.

They got off easy. Somebody who used to be a cop should instead be in prison.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. Basically, my point; better said, though. nt

[Echo In Light]

6. Of course they got off easy, this is America (police state)

[imdjh]

7. unsympathetic plaintiff- had to deal because a jury might give nothing

[Raineyb]

8. Unsympathetic plaintiff? Why because he lives in public housing or because he is black?

Because I haven't heard anything that would make him unsympathetic unless you worship the cops in which case there's nothing he can for assholes like that.

[imdjh]

9. College degree, former teacher, self destructed on drugs and alcohol.

Hard to prove that your lasting brain damage was the result of a punch to the head when you have a long history of drug and alcohol abuse.

Chatman has a bachelor's degree in political science and taught high school before falling into a 20-year struggle with chemical addictions, including crack. Bennett said he has been sober in recent years.

Chatman said he is easily fatigued and has lost memory because of the blow to his head.