Page 40 - Florida Sentinel 3-19-21

National
George Floyd's Family Receives $27 Million Settlement From Minneapolis Over His Death
Man Who Sues Hertz For Failing
To Produce Rental Receipt
That Proved His Innocence
The city of Minneapolis on Friday agreed to pay $27 million to settle a lawsuit by the family of George Floyd over his death in police custody, a case that stirred national protests over racial injustice and police bru- tality.
Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died in May as Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer, kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Floyd's dying pleas for help were captured on widely viewed bystander video, sparking one of the largest protest movements ever seen in the United States.
Benjamin Crump, an attor- ney for the Floyd family, said the agreement was the largest pre-trial settlement of a wrong- ful death lawsuit in U.S. history.
The size signifies that a Black
A Michigan man who spent nearly five years in custody is suing Hertz for failing to pro- duce in a timely manner a re- ceipt that would have proved his innocence long before he was convicted of murder. The evi- dence from the car rental com- pany was finally obtained in 2018, leading to Herbert Al- ford's exoneration in Ingham County last year.
Alford filed a lawsuit against Hertz on Tuesday, although the case will be slowed by the com- pany's bankruptcy reorganiza- tion. He is seeking financial compensation.
"There is no question that (Alford) would have avoided going to prison had they pro- duced this documentation," at- torney Jamie White told CBS affiliate WLNS-TV.
Hertz said it's "deeply sad- dened" about what happened to Alford.
"While we were unable to find the historic rental record from 2011 when it was requested in 2015, we continued our good faith efforts to locate it," spokes- woman Lauren Luster said Wednesday. "With advances in data search in the years follow- ing, we were able to locate the rental record in 2018 and promptly provided it."
Alford was convicted of sec- ond-degree murder in 2016 in
Floyd family attorney Ben Crump, far left, joins hands with George Floyd's family members and city officials during a news conference announcing a $27 million dollar settlement with the City of Min- neapolis at the Minneapolis Convention Center.
HERBERT ALFORD
the shooting death of Michael
Adams, White said.
The Hertz receipt showed Al-
ford was renting a car at a Lans- ing-area airport around the time that Adams was shot, White said. He was killed in a Lansing neighborhood 20 minutes away from the airport.
WLNS reports that prosecu- tors said that Alford's cell phone records showed he was driving to the airport in the mo- ments after the shooting, but that evidence was never intro- duced in the case.
The conviction was thrown out and charges were finally dropped in 2020, after Alford had served nearly five years in prison and jail.
person's death at the hands of police "will no longer be written off as trivial, unimportant or un- worthy of consequences," Crump said at a news confer- ence where he was joined by Floyd's relatives, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and other officials.
Floyd's family was "pleased
that this part of our tragic jour- ney to justice for my brother George is resolved," his sister Bridgett Floyd said in a state- ment.
"While our hearts are broken, we are comforted in knowing that even in death, George Floyd showed the world how to live," her statement said.
Breonna Taylor's Boyfriend Files Federal Lawsuit
The day before the anniver- sary of Breonna Taylor's death, her boyfriend Kenneth Walker III filed a federal lawsuit against the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) and the officers in- volved in last year's fatal raid that seeks damages for viola- tions of his constitutional rights, according to a lawsuit filed Friday and obtained by CNN.
The lawsuit stems from the flawed forced-entry raid at Taylor's apartment on March 13, 2020. Walker, thinking officers were intruders, fired one shot as officers broke down the door, hitting Sgt. John Mattingly in the leg, authorities said. The officers returned a barrage of gunfire throughout the apartment, killing Taylor and, according to a statement from the state Attorney General's Office, nearly hitting a family in an-
Breonna Taylor died a year ago.
other apartment.
Walker was arrested and
charged with shooting at an of- ficer, but those charges were initially dismissed last year and then dismissed with preju- dice, or permanently, last week.
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