BALTMORE (AP) - A Baltimore judge has ordered the city to pay up in a long-running dispute over a police misconduct lawsuit involving a teen who was dropped off without shoes and a cell phone by officers in 2009.
The city maintained that it should not have to pay because the officers were acting outside the scope of their jobs.
The Baltimore Sun reports that Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Geller wrote in a ruling Wednesday that although not expressly authorized by the Baltimore Police Department, ”the actions of the officers were nevertheless incidental to the conduct that was authorized by BPD and thus within the scope of employment.”
A. Dwight Pettit, the victim’s attorney, said the 10-year legal battle has been “absurd” and a “waste of taxpayer money.” The plaintiff, Michael Johnson, who was 15 at the time, was fatally shot in West Baltimore two years ago at age 25 while the case was still winding through the courts.
New Solicitor Jim Shea said he was reviewing options and planned to discuss the case with Mayor Brandon Scott.
Johnson said he was ordered into an unmarked van by officers Tyrone Francis, Gregory Hellen and Milton Smith III on May 4, 2009, and driven to Patapsco State Park.
The officers were criminally charged. Hellen was cleared of all charges. Francis and Smith were acquitted of kidnapping charges, but convicted of misconduct. A judge later downgraded their convictions to probation before judgment.
In Johnson’s civil case, a jury awarded him $500,000 in 2011, but the amount was reduced to $280,000 by the court to comply with the state cap on damages.
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