As if things weren't bad enough for the Franklin family, after being awarded a total of $6 for police violating their constitutional rights, now those same officers have requested that the court direct the family to pay for the officers’ legal fees
To recap, police illegally entered the Franklin home in the early morning hours and assaulted the 17-year-old son of Vivian Franklin. The police had the wrong son, but were not held accountable for his assault. Instead, they were only found liable for the illegal entry of the Franklin home, and a jury awarded a pathetic $1 per officer per violation to the family.
Now those officers are asking that the Franklin family reimburse them for their legal costs, which should come as an outrage to every decent person. I wondered how this could be allowed to happen, and while there's not a lot of information out there, officers appear to be referring to a specific statute in federal cases.
Under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, “If the judgement that the offered finally obtains is not more favorable than the unaccepted offer, the offeree must pay the costs incurred after the offer was made.” The City of South Bend apparently offered the Franklin family $15,000 in an attempt to make this issue just go away the Franklin family did not accept this offer and opted to go to court instead
Obviously, $15,000 is more than the $6 the jury decided an illegal entry was worth, so the officers have asked the court to make the Franklin family pay the almost $1,500 in legal fees of the officers.
I find this deplorable for several reasons. First, the officers have already been found to have violated this family’s rights. Now they want to violate them in a different way? Second, this is not the way to build good will in the community. Keep this type of thinking up, and fewer and fewer residents will feel as though the police are looking out for the community. Finally, this lends the impression that these officers are out to get the Franklin family out of spite, because they stood up for their constitutional rights.
If you agree, please contact the City of South Bend and the Police Department, Police Chief Scott Ruszkowski. Or tweet the City: @CityofSouthBend
I will add that the family is not without recourse, as they did win their case. Since they won, even though the jury awarded an embarrassingly low settlement, they can still ask the court that the officers pay the family’s legal fees, which are over $175,000.
Details on this story are sketchy, as there hasn’t been a lot of news on this issue. If I find other sources of information, I’ll be sure to update this story.