Sangamon County authorities can be spared from a lawsuit and a doubtlessly embarrassing trial underneath a proposed $10 million out-of-court settlement with the household of Sonya Massey.
The tentative settlement, the biggest of its variety in Sangamon County historical past, was reached Feb. 3, County Board member Craig Corridor instructed Illinois Instances on Feb. 6.
Corridor, chairperson of the board’s Civil Liabilities Committee, stated the complete County Board is anticipated to provide ultimate approval to the settlement at its 6 p.m. assembly Feb. 11 in Sangamon South Auditorium at 300 S. Ninth St. in Springfield.
As a part of the settlement, Corridor stated Sonya Massey’s household would agree to not sue county authorities in reference to the July 6 deadly taking pictures of Massey in her Woodside Township residence by former Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy Sean Grayson.
Additional particulars of the settlement weren’t instantly out there.
Corridor, a rural Loami farmer and a Republican, stated the proposal has the unanimous assist of the Civil Liabilities Committee’s members. He stated he agreed with the county’s authorized representatives who seen a settlement as a greater possibility for the county than the prospect of an costly trial with an unsure outcome.
A consultant of the Massey household didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The killing of Massey, a 36-year-old single Black mom of two youngsters and somebody who struggled with psychological sickness, thrust the county into the nationwide highlight as her demise grew to become a part of the nationwide Black Lives Matter motion and intensified racial pressure within the Springfield space.
The settlement seems to be within the vary of others within the wake of police-involved deaths of different Black folks across the nation.
The Could 2020 suffocation demise of George Floyd, 46, whose neck was pinned by the knee of a former Minneapolis police officer for nearly 9 minutes, resulted in a $27 million settlement for Floyd’s household from the town of Minneapolis. It was reportedly the biggest pretrial civil rights settlement in U.S. historical past.
However different settlements between native governments and households of the deceased have been decrease, together with $12 million from the town of Louisville, Kentucky, after the March 2020 taking pictures demise of Breonna Taylor, 26, in a botched drug raid; $6 million after the 2014 taking pictures demise of Tamir Rice, 12, by the hands of a Cleveland, Ohio, police officer; $6 million after the 2014 chokehold-related demise of Eric Garner, 43, by the hands of a New York Metropolis police officer; $5 million after the 2014 taking pictures demise of LaQuan McDonald, 17, involving a Chicago police officer; $6.4 million after the 2015 demise of Freddie Grey, 25, throughout an arrest in Baltimore; and $1.5 million after the taking pictures demise of Michael Brown, 18, by the hands of a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.
PHOTO BY DEAN OLSEN
Donna Massey, heart, mom of the late Sonya Massey, addresses the Sangamon County Board on Jan. 13 as a part of an finally unsuccessful effort to place a binding referendum on April 1 ballots to determine voter recall for the county sheriff. Donna Massey was accompanied by buddies Teresa Haley, left, and Margaritta Fultz.
The proposed $10 million settlement for Massey’s household can be virtually 4 occasions greater than Sangamon County’s $2.6 million settlement in 2014 with the widow of Amon Paul Carlock. Carlock, 57, was a county jail inmate who died after a battle with correctional officers in 2007. Together with the settlement quantity, the county’s complete authorized prices related to a lawsuit filed by Mary Andreatta-Carlock have been virtually $5.3 million.
Grayson, 30, a white deputy who was employed by the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Division in 2023, was charged with first-degree homicide in Massey’s demise.
Grayson, who was fired by the county after the incident, has been denied pretrial launch and is being held within the Macon County Jail in Decatur.
However an Illinois Appellate Courtroom panel in November ordered Circuit Courtroom Decide Ryan Cadagin to launch Grayson primarily based on an enchantment filed by Grayson’s attorneys, Dan Fultz and Mark Wykoff. Grayson’s attorneys cited provisions of the 2021 legislation abolishing money bail in Illinois and argued that State’s Lawyer John Milhiser didn’t current sufficient proof to justify retaining Grayson in jail.
The Illinois Supreme Courtroom put the discharge of Grayson on maintain whereas it considers an enchantment of the Appellate Courtroom ruling.
Civil rights lawyer Ben Crump has represented the Massey household and has made quite a few journeys to Springfield to name for justice. The body-worn camera video displaying Grayson’s confrontation with Massey after she referred to as 911 to summon police when she suspected a prowler in her neighborhood went viral and shocked folks around the globe.
When requested to touch upon the proposed settlement, Corridor, a Republican on the GOP-controlled County Board, stated he had feared the quantity can be even larger. As it’s, he stated the settlement, if accepted, would require the county to both borrow more cash by way of the issuance of bonds, or restructure the county’s money owed, to afford the settlement.
That’s as a result of there’s solely about $1.5 million left in a county fund for paying authorized settlements, judgments and different authorized prices for defending towards lawsuits, Corridor stated.
He stated he plans to speak with different county officers within the coming days about the place cash for a possible settlement to the Masseys would come from and whether or not the overall can be paid in installments.
BODY CAMERA FOOTAGE FROM SANGAMON COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE
The Sangamon County sheriff’s deputies who responded to Sonya Massey’s 911 name for a prowler July 6 weren’t instructed by dispatchers that her mom had referred to as 911 the day earlier than to report her daughter was having a psychological well being disaster. However her conduct that evening prompted Sean Grayson, proven standing on her entrance porch, to ask if she was all proper mentally.
Some activists calling for extra accountability and transparency from county authorities have stated extra particulars may need been revealed about Grayson’s hiring if the Massey household had filed a lawsuit and the case resulted in a trial.
A Jan. 16 settlement between the county and the U.S. Division of Justice ended the DOJ’s race and incapacity discrimination probe of the county, which was sparked by Sonya Massey’s demise. However the settlement didn’t say whether or not any errors have been made in Grayson’s hiring.
County officers denied a Freedom of Data Act request from Illinois Instances in search of a duplicate of the paperwork that officers turned over to the DOJ in response to calls for by the federal company. The Sheriff’s Division’s FOIA denial letter stated it will be “unduly burdensome for this workplace to undergo years’ price of paperwork/data and do the redaction course of.”
Requested whether or not the proposed settlement quantity is honest for the Massey household, Corridor stated, “I don’t understand how you set a worth on a human life.”
Corridor stated Massey’s killing was a “horrible factor.” He added, “The scars of this can by no means heal.”
A settlement received’t cease the county from working to enhance the Sheriff’s Division by way of extra coaching, extra cautious hiring practices and different measures to stop one other such tragedy, he stated.
“We’re nonetheless going to handle these issues,” Corridor stated, pointing to the continuing work of the citizen-led Massey Fee. “We’re nonetheless leaning on the Massey Fee to provide us some course, and we’re going to hearken to them.”
PHOTO BY DEAN OLSEN
Shadia Massey, a cousin of Sonya Massey, speaks July 23, 2024, at a information convention in Springfield concerning the launch of police body-worn digicam video depicting the July 6 deadly taking pictures of Sonya Massey in her Woodside Township residence by Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson. Grayson was later fired by the sheriff’s division. At left is civil rights legal professional Benjamin Crump. Behind Shadia Massey is Sonya Massey’s son, Malachi Hill Massey, and to the precise of Shadia is household pal Teresa Haley, founding father of nonprofit Visions 1908, and Sonya Massey’s daughter, Jeannette “Summer season” Massey.
Nevertheless, Republicans on the County Board used their votes to show down a proposal to place a binding referendum on the April 1 poll that might have established voter recall for future sheriffs. Such a referendum was supported by the Massey Fee.
The trouble to place a referendum on the poll was sparked by former sheriff Jack Campbell’s refusal to resign after the information media reported on quite a few “crimson flags” throughout Grayson’s tenure with different police businesses and through his service within the U.S. Military, all previous to Campbell’s hiring of Grayson.
The County Board has indicated preliminary assist for a future referendum that may create a countywide Psychological Well being Board, one other Massey Fee precedence. The proposed board would accumulate property taxes to fund enhancements in psychological well being providers.
Dean Olsen is a senior workers author for Illinois Instances. He will be reached at [email protected], 217-679-7810 or x.com/DeanOlsenIT.
