Man shot by cop awarded $23.1m

A federal jury awarded $23.1 million on
Wednesday to a 22-year-old black man who was
unarmed when he was shot and paralyzed by a
sheriff's deputy, but Florida lawmakers will have
to approve any award above $200,000.
The six-woman, two-man jury ruled after 3 and
half hours of deliberation that Palm Beach
County Sheriff's Sgt. Adams Lin violated Dontrell
Stephens' civil rights when he shot him in
September 2013.
Lin, who had stopped Stephens for riding his
bicycle into traffic, testified that he shot Stephens
four times because he reached for his waistband
with his left hand and then flashed a dark object
that he thought was a small handgun. Stephens
testified that he was raising his hands when Lin
opened fire for no reason. Video from the
dashboard camera in Lin's patrol car showed
Stephens' left hand was empty and a cellphone
was in his right hand.
An appeal is expected and Lin's attorneys could
ask Magistrate Judge Barry S. Seltzer to reduce
the damages. The jury apparently rejected Lin's
claim that he had made an "objectively reasonable
mistake" when he shot Stephens. The jurors
declined comment as they left the courthouse as
did Lin and his attorneys. Lin sat stoically as the
verdict was read, while Stephens wept as he was
wheeled into the courtroom minutes later. He
declined comment.
Jack Scarola, Stephens' lead attorney, said the
verdict is a victory not only for his client but for
law enforcement officers who have been unfairly
stigmatized by unjustified violence against young
black men by a small minority of their colleagues.
He said the verdict will help restore faith in the
justice system among the African-American
community.
"This will help good police officers do their
duty and be far more effective in their
communities," Scarola said.
Under Florida law, the Legislature has to approve
any lawsuit payment against a government
agency that exceeds $200,000. In the past,
legislators have been reluctant to do that, even in
non-controversial cases. For example, it took
about three years for the Legislature to approve a
$3.5 million settlement for a Jacksonville
teenager who was paralyzed when a large branch
from a city-owned tree broke off and hit him in
the head, paralyzing him. The city, admitting
fault, had asked for him to be paid.
In another case, it took more than four years for
the Legislature to approve a $10.7 million
settlement for a teenager who was permanently
disabled when a speeding sheriff's deputy plowed
into her car. A jury had awarded her $30 million.
Scarola said legislators "would not be fulfilling
their sworn obligation" if they failed to approve
Stephens' payment. He said they would be
overriding a jury that heard all the evidence and
found that a "major injustice" had been done, and
condemning Stephens to a life of poverty and
suffering.
Stephens' attorneys had said from the beginning
that they would seek more than $5 million to
cover his medical treatment and future care, but
they did not mention the amount they would seek
for pain and suffering until closing arguments to
the jury Wednesday. Attorney Darryl Lewis told
jurors Stephens will have more than $6 million in
medical and care expenses during his lifetime,
and that he deserved at least $18 million for his
pain and suffering. An expert testified that he
could spend more than 50 years in his condition.
The case was among several nationwide that
have sparked debate about the deaths of
unarmed black males following encounters with
law enforcement officers. Seltzer had instructed
jurors that they could consider only the specific
circumstances of Stephens' shooting and no
other. Lin, an Asian-American, was cleared of
criminal wrongdoing by sheriff's investigators and
local prosecutors and was later promoted to
sergeant.
Lin, 38 and a 12-year veteran of the sheriff's
office, testified that he stopped Stephens for
riding his bicycle into traffic and because he
didn't recognize him from the neighborhood.
Stephens, who admitted smoking marijuana
earlier that morning and once served 90 days in
jail for a felony drug conviction, had been riding
to a friend's house after a trip to a convenience
store.
In the dashcam video, Lin speeds up his patrol
car to catch Stephens as he pedals down a West
Palm Beach residential street. Stephens sees Lin
and turns into the parking lot of a duplex, hops
off his bike and puts it down, his right hand
holding his cellphone. Stephens moves behind a
car and both men are now outside the camera's
view. Stephens testified Lin already had his gun
drawn and shot him after he raised his hands. Lin
denied that, saying he only drew and fired after
Stephens flashed his cellphone like it was a gun.
Scarola told the jury that Lin must have already
had his gun pointed at Stephens because he
couldn't have seen the cellphone, perceived it as
a gun, drawn his own gun and fired in the two
seconds Stephens was out of view of the
dashcam video.