Over the past 10 years, the City of Cincinnati has faced at least 137 lawsuits alleging improprieties by its police officers.

        Taxpayers have paid a hefty price, an Enquirer analysis shows.

        The city has written checks totaling $2.36 million to settle 56of the 93 cases closed through October.

        And the settlement amounts have been rising, with a record $700,000 paid this year to a Silverton man who says an officer fractured his spine and ribs and punctured his lung while tackling him in a Madisonville convenience store.

        The Enquirer's analysis is the first time anyone has tracked civil rights litigation involving the city. Comparisons weren't available from communities of similar sizes because they haven't researched the issue.

        Of the cash settlements, mostcompensated people who claimed police roughed them up, shot them, Maced them, loosed police dogs on them, or inappropriately killed their loved ones.

        The city also cut checks to citizens who claimed officers charged them with crimes they did not commit — sometimes because they merely questioned authority — searched them without cause or confiscated their money without solid proof that they were dealing drugs.

        The 10-year settlement payout is asmall part of the $685 million or more it takes to run the city each year.

        Nevertheless, that's not good enough for Councilman John Cranley, who questioned how police lawsuits are handled.

        “I think we need to do some kind of investigation to find out if there is a pattern here,” Mr. Cranley said.

        “Either it's (police) behavior, it's bad litigation strategy or it's the fact that we have an overly litigious society that wants money every time something goes wrong.”
       

City slow to settle

        The city's 60 percent settlement rate in police cases actually falls below an accepted rule-of-thumb in the legal profession that about 95 percent of all civil cases are resolved by agreement.

        “There are a very small number of civil cases that actually go to a jury or a judge for trial,” said Richard Mason, executive director of the Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers in Columbus.

        “Whether police misconduct cases are different, I don't know. But I would suspect they are not.”

        Cases can settle for any number of reasons, but the primary goal is saving money. It is less expensive than risking a jury award and paying the plaintiff's attorney fees if the case goes to trial and a jury's verdict favors the plaintiff, legal experts say. Settlements typically include the plaintiff's legal costs.

        “It is a business judgment to a degree to determine when to settle and when not to settle,” Deputy City Solicitor Pete Heile said.

        The city learned an expensive lesson in 1994, when in the only case that went to trial in the past decade, a jury ordered the city to pay the family of Richard Gadker Jr. $1.65 million.

        Mr. Gadker was killed Jan. 24, 1990, after his car slammed into a disabled tractor-trailer on Interstate 71, just north of Lytle Tunnel.

        Even though Mr. Gadker had consumed alcohol before the crash, a jury decided the city was responsible because Officer Michael Neville failed to mark the road with cones or flares to warn oncoming motorists of the hazard.

        Instead, he gave the truck driver a lift to a gas station to call for a tow truck, then returned him to his rig and left.

        The city and Carrier Corp., which owned the truck, had each initially offered the Gadkers $20,000 to settle the case before trial. Carrier was ordered to pay the remainder of the $2.5 million jury award, according to Hamilton County court files.
       

Rising settlements

        Settlements haven't come close to that amount. However, a trend of higher payouts appears to be emerging, the Enquirer analysis found.

        Deaths at the hands of police had price tags of $30,000, $40,000, $63,000 and $65,000 until last year, when the city paid $200,000 to the family of Lorenzo Collins, an African-American mental patient who was shot and killed by police when he confronted officers with a brick in 1997.

        The premium jumped even higher in July when city officials agreed to the largest out-of-court settlement yet — $700,000 — to resolve a personal injury suit filed by Robert Wittenberg and his wife, Mary, of Silverton.

        Mr. Wittenberg, an Alzheimer's patient who entered a Madisonville convenience store with a drill in 1999, allegedly suffered serious injury after being tackled by Officer Robert Hill, who was called to the scene.

        The incident was videotaped on the store's security camera. City lawyers disputed that Officer Hill caused the injuries, even though they tried to fire him for the incident.

        Mr. Heile disputes there is any pattern of higher settlements.

        “It's a function of looking at the case, looking at facts, looking at all circumstances surrounding a piece of litigation. The facts are very different in many cases. They may appear the same, but obviously they are different situations,” he said.

        Lawyers who pursue civil rights cases aren't sure how the Wittenberg settlement will affect future cases.

        “I don't think it's setting any precedent,” said attorney Robert Newman, a civil rights lawyer who negotiated the settlement for Lorenzo Collins' family.

        “It's certainly an adequate settlement for the horrible circumstances of that case. If the city is confronted again with very similar circumstances, I hope the city will settle for as much or more.”

        Kenneth Lawson, an attorney who worked with Mr. Newman on the Collins case, thinks the city will have a tough time justifying lower settlements, especially in lawsuits involving the deaths of African-Americans.

        “They will have a hard time justifying how that white man's life — when he is still alive — has a greater value than a black man's life,” Mr. Lawson said.

        Mr. Heile called the Wittenberg case an unusual one and denied that lawyers consider race in making settlements.

        “I think it stands alone,” he said of the Wittenberg case. Each settlement is based on a variety of factors.

        City lawyers said earlier that they settled with the Wittenbergs because they feared how the videotape, coupled with negative feelings toward police following the April shooting of Timothy Thomas, an unarmed African-American, would affect a jury.

Looking for change

        Often the cases are about more than cash.

        Lawyers say they have asked for reform — changes in police training and practices — as part of their settlements. Many are still waiting for meaningful change.

        “(The city) makes the minimum change to avoid being sued again,” said Christo Lassiter, a law professor at the University of Cincinnati. “The changes are not what's right, not what the plaintiff wants.”

        In the Lorenzo Collins case, for example, his mother, Doris Floyd, wanted the city to modify procedures involving the way officers approach mentally ill people.

        Mrs. Floyd asked city officials to establish a team of mental health professionals, modeled after one used in Memphis, Tenn., to help officers evaluate and respond to crisis situations on the street.

        “When we said you have to pay the family money in addition to that, (former safety director) Kent Ryan slammed the door in our face,” Mr. Newman said.

        The city began using beanbag shotguns to subdue mentally ill people, and patrol officers started carrying expandable batons.

        Officials also agreed, at the urging of federal mediators, to establish a seven-member panel to review city investigations of police misconduct. A recent Enquirer investigation revealed that hundreds of complaints each year were not being referred to that Citizens Police Review Panel.

        “They have made modest changes just to appease their critics,” said Mr. Newman, who sees the use of beanbags on mentally ill people as an improvement.

        Mr. Heile said city officials are “devoted” to following the law.

        “It's a continuous process. There (is) always going to be friction on streets ... issues that will arise that will wind up in litigation. There always has been.”

        Attorney Stephen Felson's dealings with the city make him question whether city officials are sincere in the promises they already have made.

        Mr. Felson has sued the city at least three times in federal court accusing police of illegally seizing money from convicted drug offenders with no proof that the money is gained from peddling dope.

        In 1999, the city signed a consent decree in federal court promising to stop. But, Mr. Felson said, police are continuing the practice, an allegation that city lawyers deny. Mr. Felson filed another class action lawsuit in July.

Alleged actions often end in big settlements
       

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