Wrongful convictions, police-involved deaths cost city millions over 10 years
Victoria Snelgrove was a 21-year-old college student out celebrating the 2004 Boston Red Sox ALCS victory over the Yankees when she was killed by a pepper pellet fired by Boston Police.
Her family received $5 million from the city, The Boston Globe reports.
Four years later, another college student died after the 2008 Celtics win in the NBA Finals, this time in police custody. Twenty-two-year-old David Woodman’s death was caused by a preexisting heart condition, and the city awarded his family $3 million, according to The Globe.
The settlements represent a sizeable chunk of the $36 million the city has paid over the last 10 years to settle claims against the Boston Police Department, The Globe reports.
Though police brutality has become a topic of national conversation after the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and Freddie Gray, many of the Boston suits have stemmed from wrongful convictions.
Since 2004, five such cases were settled for at least $3 million each, according to The Globe.
These large awards are comparable to what other cities across the country have spent to settle similar suits, according to The Globe. As one legal expert said, the payouts could have been higher had the city not settled.
“Settling was smart for the city,’’ civil rights lawyer Howard Friedman told The Globe. “These are just terrible cases.’’
Of the $36 million the city has spent to settle more than 2,000 legal claims, $31 million went toward just 22 cases.
Read the full Globe report here.
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