Post by Critique on Jan 19, 2007 4:21:14 GMT -5
January 17, 2007
By BOB FOWLER
CLINTON - A $5.5 million federal lawsuit filed over an incident where two deputies fired 18 gunshots into an occupied van would go away under a deal approved Monday.
Anderson County commissioners quickly OK'd the offer, which calls for the county to pay the plaintiff its $10,000 insurance deductible combined with an undisclosed insurance payment.
In exchange, the lawsuit would be dismissed, county Law Director Jay Yeager told commissioners.
"I think it's an opportunity to limit Anderson County's likely exposure,'' he said.
If approved by a judge, the total payout to Karen D. Sartin would remain confidential, Yeager said. "We can't divulge the settlement," he said. "Nor can the other side."
Sartin's attorney, Gregory P. Isaacs of Knoxville, said Monday afternoon it would be "inappropriate to comment" on the deal.
An unarmed Sartin sat behind the wheel of her van, mired in a roadside ditch, when deputies Billy Giles and Bill McMillan fired their service revolvers into its grill and radiator.
An in-cruiser camera captured the Nov. 18, 2005, incident, and that videotape was aired on national news networks.
Isaacs filed the federal lawsuit against the county that alleged Sartin's civil rights were violated, and she suffered "physical and psychological abuse and harm."
The deputies started chasing Sartin's van after noticing one of its brake lights was out and the van's license plate belonged on another vehicle.
That low-speed chase ended when McMillan performed a rolling roadblock and forced Sartin's van off Norris Freeway.
Then-Sheriff Bill White fired the two deputies, saying they violated sheriff's department policies.
County commissioners on Monday voted to take the $10,000 deductible payment out of the county's rainy-day fund for emergencies.
www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,kns_347_5284119,00.html
By BOB FOWLER
CLINTON - A $5.5 million federal lawsuit filed over an incident where two deputies fired 18 gunshots into an occupied van would go away under a deal approved Monday.
Anderson County commissioners quickly OK'd the offer, which calls for the county to pay the plaintiff its $10,000 insurance deductible combined with an undisclosed insurance payment.
In exchange, the lawsuit would be dismissed, county Law Director Jay Yeager told commissioners.
"I think it's an opportunity to limit Anderson County's likely exposure,'' he said.
If approved by a judge, the total payout to Karen D. Sartin would remain confidential, Yeager said. "We can't divulge the settlement," he said. "Nor can the other side."
Sartin's attorney, Gregory P. Isaacs of Knoxville, said Monday afternoon it would be "inappropriate to comment" on the deal.
An unarmed Sartin sat behind the wheel of her van, mired in a roadside ditch, when deputies Billy Giles and Bill McMillan fired their service revolvers into its grill and radiator.
An in-cruiser camera captured the Nov. 18, 2005, incident, and that videotape was aired on national news networks.
Isaacs filed the federal lawsuit against the county that alleged Sartin's civil rights were violated, and she suffered "physical and psychological abuse and harm."
The deputies started chasing Sartin's van after noticing one of its brake lights was out and the van's license plate belonged on another vehicle.
That low-speed chase ended when McMillan performed a rolling roadblock and forced Sartin's van off Norris Freeway.
Then-Sheriff Bill White fired the two deputies, saying they violated sheriff's department policies.
County commissioners on Monday voted to take the $10,000 deductible payment out of the county's rainy-day fund for emergencies.
www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,kns_347_5284119,00.html