Federal Lawsuit Against Parkersburg Police Settled

The Tim Mazza lawsuit, which was pending in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of West Virginia, is now settled.  In police lawsuit cases, the settlements are not necessarily confidential.  This case was settled for $100,000.00.  Another case involving two of the same officers was settled a couple months prior for $70,000.00.

Link to a news story on the Mazza settlement.

Link to a news story on the Ratliff settlement.

The funny thing in this case is that from day one, in the newspapers, the mayor and police chief blamed us lawyers and tort reform in general.  They publicly announced that they would not be settling this case and that they would handle the matter in court.  Of course this had to be addressed once the decision to settle was made.  In the News and Sentinel article announcing the settlement, they blamed the decision to settle on their insurer.

If I could get an insurer to settle a frivolous case for 100 grand just to avoid the time and expense of litigation, I wouldn’t be so picky about which cases to accept.

Federal Lawsuit Filed Against Morgan County Sheriff’s Department and Deputy

We just filed this case in federal court against the Morgan County Commission (i.e., Morgan County Sheriff’s Department) and Deputy Seth Place for the 2010 shooting of my client, Ulysses Everett.  He was shot twice through the front door of his home while unarmed.  There is a video.

ETA: News article from The Journal newspaper.

View this document on Scribd