Michael Brown's Parents Settle Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Ferguson

By Katherine Krueger | June 21, 2017 | 12:22pm

Latest

Welcome to WHAT NOW, a morning round-up of the news/fresh horrors that await you today.

Almost three years after Darren Wilson, then a Ferguson, MO, police officer, fatally shot their unarmed 18-year-old son, Michael Brown’s parents have settled a wrongful death lawsuit with the city on Tuesday.

Most Popular

The terms of the settlement were not disclosed. But U.S. District Judge E. Richard Webber of the Eastern District of Missouri wrote that the settlement amount “is fair and reasonable compensation for this wrongful death claim,” according to The Washington Post.

The settlement was sealed under the state’s Sunshine Law, with Webber arguing that Brown’s parents, Michael Brown Sr. and Lesley McSpadden, could be harmed if the details of the agreement were revealed.

Brown’s parents sued the City of Ferguson, Wilson, and the former Ferguson police chief in May 2015. Their lawsuit drew extensively on the Justice Department report, produced under then-Attorney General Eric Holder, that detailed vast racial disparities in black residents being arrested and unlawfully targeted by the majority white police force.

WHAT ELSE?

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Jon Ossoff, the Democrat whose congressional campaign in Georgia garnered national attention and record spending, fell to Republican Karen Handel last night. Donald Trump tweeted his congratulations, although Handel declined to thank Trump by name in her victory speech.
Speaking of Trump, his net worth slipped to a measly $2.9 billion, down from $3 billion, a change Bloomberg attributed to three under-performing high-rise properties in New York City.
Senior administration officials knew that former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was vulnerable to blackmail by the Russians but continued to brief him on sensitive intelligence, The New York Times reports.