Greensboro City Attorney Chuck Watts announced a settlement agreement in the wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of Marcus Deon Smith at the Tuesday, Feb. 1 City Council meeting.
After meeting for about 30 minutes, the City Council went into closed session for about half an hour, and after the council came back into open session, Mayor Nancy Vaughan asked Watts to make a statement.
Watts said, “I have a joint statement by the City of Greensboro and Mary and George Smith regarding the agreement to settle the lawsuit.
“The City of Greensboro and the family of Marcus Deon Smith have reached an agreement to resolve the lawsuit brought by the estate of Marcus Deon Smith. Importantly to these parties the total settlement of $2,570,000, the majority of which will be paid by the City of Greensboro and the remainder by Guilford County will financially benefit both the parents of March Deon Smith and his children and will formerly acknowledge with a commemorative plaque that Marcus Deon Smith’s life mattered.
“These parties will soon request judicial approval of the settlement and dismissal of the lawsuit without any findings of wrongdoing or liability. After the settlement is concluded these parties intend to move forward in a spirit of respect and reconciliation.”
Watts also advised city councilmembers that it would be inappropriate to comment on the settlement until it is approved by the courts.
He said that the settlement agreement would have to be reduced to a long form settlement agreement and approved by the court where the case was brought and by the estate court.
Marcus Deon Smith died on Sept. 8, 2018, after being restrained by Greensboro police officers with a Ripp Hobble device that binds a person’s hands and feet behind them in a manner commonly called “hogtying.” The Greensboro Police Department has since stopped using the Ripp Hobble restraint.
Smith died of cardiopulmonary arrest. The medical examiner listed his death as a homicide and the Ripp Hobble device as a contributing factor.
The parents of Marcus Deon Smith filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Greensboro, the police officers involved in the incident and Guilford County and the emergency medical technicians who were involved.
Money Money Money. It’s always about the money. Man never had a job but lots of welfare babies by different baby mommas now the family gets a payday because he had to get drunk , high and act like a fool. What a world we live in
Typical….all BS
But he was a person. A person who was loved unconditionally by his family not because of what he did. Or did not have. What if he were your son, sibling or even you?
If he was loved unconditionally by his family, he wouldn’t have been running out in the middle of traffic, tripping on drugs, high out of his mind. The first responders tried several times to help him; there is no way he could have been put in an ambulance the way he was acting – that would have been unsafe for everyone involved. It’s hard enough to stomach the fact that Council is paying the family, but the plaque just takes it to a whole other level.
Smith’s family will blow every penny within a year.
Yeah, he was probably a feckless ne’er do well, but did he deserve to die like this?
Die like what? Of excited delirium induced by a drug overdose, which is likely what happened? I don’t think he deserved that death, but if you research drug induced excited delirium, you will see that by the time an individual is to the stage Mr. Smith was, unless you are sitting in the E.R., there is nothing that can be done to save you. You are literally the walking dead. Your body is massively overheating, which is why people strip off their clothes. You are incoherent and your fight or flight response has gone haywire, which is why you fight everyone trying to help you. Then your heart is going into overdrive and eventually stops as your entire system crashes.
The police were not fighting him for fun. They were trying to restrain him due to his erratic behavior, then help him. However, he was fighting them. He was beyond reason because his body was in overload for the reasons stated above. More recent procedures have been developed where the cops and EMS basically hold you down while EMS shoots you up with a massive dose of tranquilizer, but that policy did not exist at the time if I recall correctly. Officers used restraint techniques and equipment that were approved for use at the time. Their other options were to Taser the guy, which comes with its own problems, or do nothing and led him run wild until he died anyway. What else would you suggest the cops have done?
I think the primary liability, if there was any at all, was in EMS’s failure to render aid to him once he passed out. I don’t have all the details of the case, but that’s what I have been able to piece together from various sources. Mr. Smith holds a fair portion of that liability as well if he voluntarily consumed enough illegal drugs to put him in the state of excited delirium.
Wow Don the expert weighs in. Stand back the world is about to stop turning
Thats right. Just make fun but offer nothing substantive. So helpful. You must work for the City.
The city officials that made this ridiculous decision need to be ousted from office. Even more ridiculous is putting up a plaque.. Unbelievable.
Who, I say who could have seen this coming.
What a crock! Way to stand up for your City Employees who had to deal with this crap. Our wonderful local government
always cowers to the squeaky wheel regardless of what’s right.
You got the settlement amount wrong. It’s 2.57 Million, not 2.75. Typical of the Rhino times
Thanks.
No Ms. Hammer Thank you and John for continuing to put out the Rhino. You have a tremendous impact on the community and we appreciate your work The Rhino is always about the facts and you do it with honesty and integrity. Keep up the great work. Thanks again
It should have been more like $25.70
That would have been at least $26 too much.
The family knew he had mental issues, the family knew he had a drug problem and didn’t help him. The Police and EMS tried, but he would not comply. Why won’t the City fight for there employees? Sad, this has happened, but we all know to vote out the Democrats in the May primary and November election.
That’s fantasy!
fantasy!
What a NICE payday for a CRIMINALS family!! Makes no sense!! Our local government is SPINELESS
I have seen ridiculous decisions made by this city council but this takes the cake. These people have no business representing the taxpayers of Greensboro. The members who agreed to this foolishness need to be voted out of office.
Long drawn out process settled before primarys…..right on Mandate Mayors schedule. Plrase save us all from political shenanigans related to such a tragedy like this.
Hey, it’s not THEIR money they are throwing into that cesspool.
They used an approved means of restraint. Since then they no longer use that procedure. Should be then end of it but GC has plenty of $$$ to shut people up – as it was always about money.
This is unbelievable … and the last part.. A PLAQUE!! This city council and mayor have got to go..
The plaque is the biggest crock I’ve seen. They don’t have plaques for police officers killed in the line of duty in Greensboro. I’m fact the police officers association had to beg Joe Williams for a space in his property off Murrow to put up a monument for the first and only black officer to be killed in the line of duty.
The plaque is no worse than the “Massacre “ marker that was approved by a former council and now stands on McConnel Rd. The shootout that occurred that Nov. day was just that a shootout between two groups of morons that was caused by nelson johnson who has yet to publicly apologize for his role in creating the whole mess. Shame on him. I know I saw him hide under the van piece of crap
So you were a cop on the scene of a shootout and made no arrests? Fired no rounds? Rendered no aid? Interesting.
Or would you like to be more accurate and say you saw him on video at a later date doing those things? Because if you were a cop on scene and didn’t intervene…well, I would certainly not be saying that on here, or anywhere for that matter.
Remember this past June in downtown Gso. don there are times you do what you’re told. and that’s that no matter what you feel.
No Don I never said I was a cop on the scene you inferred that.
Yeah, sorry. It’s hard to tell sometimes because of your horrible grammar. Just trying to get a clarification.
A plaque? What will it say? I’ll give it my best try:
Historical Marker
On September 8, 2018 a blafrican american man with a drug habit, a criminal record, and history of mental health problems flipped out and fought the Police & EMS who tried to help him and he ended up as fertilizer. He fought the law & the law won. Our libtard City Council paid his family over 2.5 million dollars and bought this commemorative plaque as a reminder not to elect stupid politicians.
The criminals have become the victims and there is no accountability for their criminal actions! The legal system now goes after the police and the first responders as the perpetrators! I don’t see it getting any better as long as we have liberal, marxist, communist leaders running the system!
City and County leaders have weighed their options and decided it’s easier to commit OUR dollars down this rabbit hole than it would be to deal with the riotous actions that may come about by the Defendants Attorney whipping the locals into a frenzy.
SHOW ME THE MONEY !
This is an atrocity. The next thing that will happen is the parents will sue the police officers. When you are going crazy and threatening public safety, what else could the officers do? Shoot the guy? Then look where we would be. I would have let this go to court. There is no way 12 jurors would have made an award of this type. Shame on you City Council!
I object to my tax money being used to pay this family for something that was not the fault of the emergency service personnel who responded to this incident.
Why is Guilford County helping to pay settlement for City ?
Because their EMS did not render appropriate aid.
How so. And what fact’s do you have to back this up
Um, from the allegation in the now settled lawsuit.
Quote from Smith Vs City of Greensboro, Guilford County etc.: “Defendant Guilford County EMS Paramedics, who were called to the scene, failed to intervene to protect Marcus from the use of unreasonable force and failed to promptly attend to his serious medical needs. ”
It’s called Google. Use it wisely.
Gosh Don. Thanks for the help. Were you there Did you actually witness what occurred. A lot can happen in a short amount of time when a lot of people are involved especially when an out of control person is the issue in the middle of a busy high traffic intersection. Maybe you’re not as smart as you think you are. Get over yourself
I observed professional EMS personnel review the video. More than you did I am sure.
No, GSOman. Bob asked why the county was involved. Mary alluded to EMS involvement. You asked about “facts”. The “fact” is that the county was named in the suit for the reason I listed which was a quote from the suit itself. I am not saying they in fact did not render aid, but that allegation is why they were in the suit.
Whether they did it or not is now a moot point because the city and county settled the suit. The only fact relevant to the questions at hand was my explanation as to why they were in the suit. Although, the fact that the county settled might indicate they acknowledged, though not publicly, that there might have been merit to tue allegation.
You seem to get offended when people are legitimately trying to offer information, something I have yet to see you do. I’ll dumb it down for you from now on and we can skip straight to name calling if that’s what you prefer.
Just so I understand what you are saying. EMS arrives on scene Police are already there trying to control suspect so who’s in charge of the scene. Police or EMS please enlighten us to proper protocol
The family ought to be paying money to the city for all the crap they have put us through over their idiot son whom they birthed but failed to parent.
Agreed Wayne. If I had acted the way that fool did my pappy would have chased me all the way home with a “backker” stick. That’s tobacco stick for you liberal yankees
Now now don don’t get all twisted up over this, you may have a stroke and who knows EMS may fail to render aid. And just to clarify things what names have I called you.
Not worked up at all. Just correcting your misunderstanding of the original question, which was Bob asking why the county ended up paying out. That’s as dumbed down as I can get it for you.