Foley settlement puts focus on new guidelines
UNION-TRIBUNE
July 9, 2008
Our legal system is not perfect, but it seems to have achieved a just result in the lawsuit by former Charger Steve Foley against the city of Coronado.
The city and its insurers will pay $5.5 million to Foley to compensate him for lost earnings and medical expenses after an off-duty Coronado police officer shot him twice in September 2006 near his Poway home.
It took two weeks of trial in Superior Court – and, notably, the able intervention of mediator and retired U.S. District Judge Lawrence Irving – for the two parties to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their cases and decide to settle rather than trust the outcome to jurors.
Attorneys for Coronado, which had offered a low-ball settlement in the mid-six figures before the trial began, had the unenviable task of trying to persuade the jury that the conduct of rookie Officer Aaron Mansker that morning was anything but negligent. Mansker, in plain clothes and his personal car, followed Foley from downtown San Diego to Poway and attempted to pull him over without even displaying a badge.
Foley's attorneys, who contended their client suffered losses in excess of $14 million, had their own challenges. The jury would hear that the incident never would have occurred if the linebacker had not driven up the freeway after a night of drinking, with a blood-alcohol level eventually measured at more than 2.5 times the legal limit.
There also likely would have been mention of Foley's previous altercations with law enforcement, including an ugly confrontation with three San Diego police officers. Not the kind of stuff that warms jurors to a plaintiff's case, no matter how reckless Mansker's conduct.
Then, the player's lawyers would have had to persuade the jury that Foley, 31 at the time of the shooting, really would have been awarded free-agent riches stretching through 2012 in a league that increasingly cuts ties with younger players who can't avoid run-ins with law enforcement.
We urge all law enforcement officers to take to heart the regionwide guidelines adopted in the wake of the Foley shooting. Those procedures stipulate that off-duty officers should strongly consider all options, notably calling uniformed officers, before deciding to intervene.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/op-ed/editorial1/20080709-9999-lz1ed9top.html
July 9, 2008
Our legal system is not perfect, but it seems to have achieved a just result in the lawsuit by former Charger Steve Foley against the city of Coronado.
The city and its insurers will pay $5.5 million to Foley to compensate him for lost earnings and medical expenses after an off-duty Coronado police officer shot him twice in September 2006 near his Poway home.
It took two weeks of trial in Superior Court – and, notably, the able intervention of mediator and retired U.S. District Judge Lawrence Irving – for the two parties to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their cases and decide to settle rather than trust the outcome to jurors.
Attorneys for Coronado, which had offered a low-ball settlement in the mid-six figures before the trial began, had the unenviable task of trying to persuade the jury that the conduct of rookie Officer Aaron Mansker that morning was anything but negligent. Mansker, in plain clothes and his personal car, followed Foley from downtown San Diego to Poway and attempted to pull him over without even displaying a badge.
Foley's attorneys, who contended their client suffered losses in excess of $14 million, had their own challenges. The jury would hear that the incident never would have occurred if the linebacker had not driven up the freeway after a night of drinking, with a blood-alcohol level eventually measured at more than 2.5 times the legal limit.
There also likely would have been mention of Foley's previous altercations with law enforcement, including an ugly confrontation with three San Diego police officers. Not the kind of stuff that warms jurors to a plaintiff's case, no matter how reckless Mansker's conduct.
Then, the player's lawyers would have had to persuade the jury that Foley, 31 at the time of the shooting, really would have been awarded free-agent riches stretching through 2012 in a league that increasingly cuts ties with younger players who can't avoid run-ins with law enforcement.
We urge all law enforcement officers to take to heart the regionwide guidelines adopted in the wake of the Foley shooting. Those procedures stipulate that off-duty officers should strongly consider all options, notably calling uniformed officers, before deciding to intervene.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/op-ed/editorial1/20080709-9999-lz1ed9top.html
posted by copwatchsd at
11:19 AM
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