Family Of 19-Year-Old Who Died In Police Custody Gets $5M

Family Of 19-Year-Old Who Died In Police Custody Gets $5M

Introduction

The family of a 19-year-old African American man who passed away in police custody in Caroline County, Maryland, in 2018 has reached a partial settlement in their federal case against seven Eastern Shore communities.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland announced in a news release that the settlement, which also mandates that three communities make systemic reforms within their police agencies aimed at preventing such deaths, will pay the family $5 million.

A part of the complaint, which claims that the state's office of the Chief Medical Examiner and its contentious former chief medical examiner conspired to conceal the circumstances of the death, will continue to be litigated by attorneys for the family and the Coalition for Justice.

The plaintiff's mother mourned her son's death at the hands of the police in a statement released by the ACLU and expressed her hope that the improvements detailed in the settlement will stop other similar tragedies.

The mother claimed that she was forced to witness the murder of her son by those police officers while he cried out for help and reached out to her. She further remarked that she lacks the vocabulary to adequately express the profound hurt she would always feel when recalling that tragic day. She hopes that the changes made to police departments will save lives and save any other families the suffering she goes through every day.

Immediately following a confrontation with a Greensboro Police Department officer and two other police from different agencies, the guy passed away on September 16, 2018, at Easton Memorial Hospital.

After a woman contacted 911 after observing the man struggle with a younger relative, the police confronted the man. The police pursued him as he fled through Greensboro and ended up at his family's trailer park house. He was shocked by a taser, pinned down on a ramp leading to his house, handcuffed, and the officers remained on top of him for about six minutes.

His mother was at home, and officers could hear her asking them if her son was breathing on the body-camera footage. He was found dead of a sudden cardiac arrest during an autopsy, and the medical examiner's report stated that stress from his conflict with law authorities was a factor.

While the family was angry that it took lawmakers years to pass legislation bearing his name, the man's killing sparked calls for widespread change in Maryland, and in 2021, the historic "Maryland Police Accountability Act" was passed into law. The law promised to include provisions that would increase the openness of police disciplinary records.

Nearly 30 use-of-force reports from one of the policemen involved in the death, who is no longer employed with the Greensboro Police Department, were concealed from the public during his time as a Dover, Delaware, police officer. 2019 saw the cancellation of Webster's license to practice law in Maryland.

Requests for a response from the lawyers representing the police officer, Greensboro, and its former police chief, went unanswered. The state medical examiner's office is being represented by the Maryland Office of the Attorney General, which declined to comment.