How New Castle County's 7-figure settlement for Lymond Moses killing compares with others
New Castle County government's $1.05 million settlement with the family of a 30-year-old man fatally shot by county police in 2021 marks the largest police-violence settlement in Delaware since 2016.
The agreement ends litigation filed by the family of Lymond Moses against New Castle County police and likely is the final government involvement in a tragedy that saw police shoot the man in the head as he tried to flee what they described as a welfare check while patrolling outside their jurisdiction.
The settlement agreement was made public through a Freedom of Information Act request. It agrees to pay out $1,050,000 to Moses' survivors and their attorneys in exchange for them dismissing a federal lawsuit filed in 2021. It admits no fault on behalf of the officers and the county Police Department.
Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings declined to criminally prosecute the officers for the killing in 2021. A police officer in Delaware has never been found criminally liable for a shooting.
Here are the details of the settlement, what prompted it and how it fits into the recent history of police violence in Delaware.
The shooting of Lymond Moses
New Castle County police on a patrol seeking stolen vehicles went into northeast Wilmington on a January morning in 2021. During the patrol, officers saw Moses' car parked on the side of Rosemont Avenue with its engine running and dome light on. Body camera footage released in March shows Moses asleep behind the wheel.
The car was not stolen, but officers made contact with Moses. He told the officers his mother lived nearby. The officers began speaking with him, but he drove away. He headed down the dead-end street before turning back toward officers, driving in their direction.
A county police press release later that day said Moses "made a U-turn and drove at a high rate of speed directly at the officers." Body camera footage appears to show Moses driving around the first officer, not at him. The car also appears to be angled away from the second officer when that officer shoots Moses.
He was struck in the head and died.
Body camera footage and deposition testimony from the officers involved can be found here.
Not criminally liable
The Delaware Department of Justice, led by Jennings, is responsible for investigating deadly police use of force and whether they could constitute criminal acts by officers.
Jennings' office hired an outside law firm to analyze the incident through the lens of Delaware law, which allows local police to kill people if there is credible evidence that the officers reasonably believed the force was necessary to protect either themselves or others against death or serious physical injury.
Their report found that Patrolman Roberto Ieradi, who has left the department, and Cpl. Robert Ellis were not criminally liable under Delaware law in shooting Moses as they had reason to believe he could have hurt them or another officer on the scene by driving in their direction.
While the report opined that the officers could not successfully be criminally prosecuted under Delaware law, it criticized the officers for lapses in tactics and training.
The report and coverage from the time can be found here.
The lawsuit and settlement
Moses' survivors sued New Castle County and the three officers involved for excessive force and wrongful death, claiming that they needlessly killed Moses and that the police force didn't properly train its officers. In court filings, attorneys argued that Moses' actions led to the tragedy and officers' response was justified.
The lawsuit was settled after the judge ordered the parties into mediation following oral arguments on the defendants' request that a judge rule in their favor before trial.
The settlement amount encompasses both an amount paid to Moses' family as well as their attorneys and other fees involved with litigating the case. The amount should not be viewed as a simple windfall for the family. In announcing the lawsuit, Moses' sister used the term "blood money."
"Blood money is all that keeps popping up in my head, filing a lawsuit for money that my brother’s blood is on," she said in 2021. "It hurts."
Reaction to the settlement and who pays
The settlement, like all agreed to by police and victims of police violence in Delaware recently, includes a confidentiality clause generally barring statements about the case.
A spokesperson for New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer declined to comment.
Emeka Igwe, the attorney representing Moses' family, said the family is "pleased," describing the settlement as a "first step toward accountability."
"But this was never about the money. This was about getting justice," Igwe said on behalf of the family.
He said the family remains hopeful that Jennings or federal authorities will give the case a "second look."
New Castle County Councilman Jea Street said he felt the $1.05 million settlement amount "cut the county a major break."
Settlement partially covered by insurance
New Castle County government, like many municipal governments, carries insurance to cover such settlements tied to police use of force.
An attorney for the county said the insurance kicks in once the settlement amount, as well as fees paid to outside attorneys that helped litigate the case on behalf of the county, tops $750,000. The amount the county pays for that insurance each year was not immediately available Friday.
Police officers disciplined
The litigation offered a rare glimpse into how police discipline themselves, documents that are normally closed off from public disclosure in Delaware.
Through deposition documents posted as part of the case, Delaware Online/The News Journal learned all three officers were disciplined after the shooting. The officers were disciplined for things like failing to notify Wilmington police that they were operating in their jurisdiction among other infractions not directly tied to shooting Moses.
Read more about that here.
Largest settlement in recent years
Settlements are often the only measure of accountability the public learns about dealing with police violence in Delaware.
Using settlement amounts as a comparison, the Moses settlement is the largest paid out by a police department since the $1.5 million settlement by Wilmington police with the survivors of Jeremy McDole, a man killed by Wilmington officers in 2015.
Other noteworthy settlements since then include:
A $975,000 payment to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the family of a man who died − and who a judge said may have already been restrained − when a Delaware State Police officer used a stun gun on him for a third time in 2015. Depositions by the officers involved contradict summaries of police reports as to whether the man was handcuffed by the time he was hit with a stun gun for a third time.
A $650,000 payment to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a man who was a teen when he was shot at four times and struck twice by a Wilmington officer while fleeing in a stolen car in 2019.
A $700,000 payment to the family of a child that suffered a traumatic brain injury when a Wilmington police chase ended in a multicar pileup on I-95 near the Philadelphia International Airport in 2019.
A $290,000 payment to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a man that was permanently injured after being pinned between a brick wall and a Wilmington police cruiser during a 2018 chase.
Read more about recent police settlements in Delaware here.
Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or xwilson@delawareonline.com. Follow @Ber_Xerxes on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Lymond Moses settlement marks largest police violence payout in years
