I hope you took a few minutes this week to read our story, “Lansing agrees to multi-million dollar settlement over jail death,” which we were the first to report after an extensive effort to unearth the money behind the settlement through public records requests and pressure on city officials.
These can seem like simple stories, but they often are not.
I thought it was worth sharing here because while other news outlets have since written the story, some attributed to the LSJ and some not, we did the legwork that uncovered the money behind the settlement. Your subscription helped pay for that work.
We previously reported that the city settled the lawsuit brought by the family of Anthony Hulon in 2020 in early March, but no dollar amount was released by the city. (I’ve long argued it’s smarter for local government officials, at least from a public relations strategy, to release all the details of the settlement at one time, but that isn’t often the case and so we end up writing multiple stories about public legal settlements to get common-sense questions answered.)
With the city declining to release the dollar figure, we went to court records looking for an answer, but a federal judge was convinced by attorneys to redact all dollar amounts in legal documents outlining the settlement on April 13. Next we sent a public records request to the city on April 20. The Lansing City Attorney’s Office denied that request, saying it had “reviewed its files and has determined there are no responsive documents.”
MORE: Lansing pays 6-figure settlement to woman firefighter over bra dispute
We immediately sent a new, essentially identical, public records request but also started pressing the city attorney’s office and other officials about the denial. The question we posed was “How could the case be settled in federal court without the city having paperwork outlining the deal and any payment associated with it?” Michigan law generally does not allow local governments to hide tax money spent on legal settlements.
The city finally relented on April 29, along with an email from City Council President Peter Spadafore and City Attorney Greg Venker, with Venker admitting that the initial denial was incorrect and mishandled by his office.
“There was miscommunication within my office about the date the settlement was approved by the Court and the matter was fully dismissed,” Venker wrote.
Ultimately, the agreed-upon settlement was for $8.9 million, with the city paying the first $1 million and the Michigan Municipal Risk Management Authority, a self-insurance pool for governments in Michigan, paying the rest. The authority will also pick up at least $370,000 in city legal fees. Lansing pays into this fund, like you and I pay for insurance on our homes and property. It’s not yet clear how this settlement will affect Lansing’s premiums.
It’s the latest in a string of legal settlements stemming from deaths in the city’s lockup facility downtown. That facility is soon to be replaced by a new public safety complex being built now and expected to open next year.
That’s a glimpse at some of the work we’ve done in recent days. Thanks again for subscribing.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: How we uncovered an $8.9 million legal settlement
Reporting by Al Wilson, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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