28 July 2010, 5:45 am
NEW YORK – The city agreed to pay more than $7 million to settle a civil lawsuit stemming in the fatal 50-bullet police shooting of an unarmed man on his wedding day. The settlement gives $3.25 million to the estate of Sean Bell, who was killed in 2006 outside a strip club in Queens while leaving his bachelor party and $3 million to Joseph Guzman and $900,000 to Trent Benefield who were wounded in the shooting that killed their friend. "We hope that all parties can find some measure of closure by this settlement," the city's attorney, Michael A. Cardozo, said in a statement. An attorney for the plaintiffs, Scott Rynecki, said the settlement was hard-fought over two days and that the plaintiffs felt it was the best outcome possible. My first question: After NY spent four years fighting a settlement that was hard fought by the city, where does the City Attorney find the nerve to wish the family some measure of closure by this settlement? Couldn't they have given the family some measure of closure 4 years sooner by just paying them and do you think the city was fighting the amount asked for or the whole settlement period? My second question: Although this was a horrible tragedy is one man's life really worth $7 million and another worth $3 million for injuries? Friends of ours lost a child in a freak accident in another country and they were told the life of the child had no monetary value as the child was not contributing to the family income at the time of the child's death. THAT is totally messed up but isn't $7 million going overboard in the opposite direction?... Read More »
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