‘Hush money’: Victims not allowed to discuss Independence police chase crash settlement

Sherry Ross was livid when she learned that a police chase in Independence that injured her and her 92-year-old father had started over a seat belt violation.

And she didn’t keep her thoughts to herself.

In a local television news interview, Ross told a reporter she wanted the Police Department to change its vehicle pursuit policy to prevent something like that from happening again.

In the 2019 KSHB 41 story, Ross recounted that she was driving her father to church when they were T-boned in the intersection of Sterling Avenue and Blue Ridge Boulevard by a driver fleeing Independence officers.

The crash left her dad, Robert Angotti, with five broken ribs, a cracked sternum and a punctured lung. Ross also suffered a fractured sternum.

“They allowed innocent people to get hurt,” she told the reporter. “Something’s gotta change.”

The TV story that aired three months after the crash also revealed there was a child in the suspect’s truck. Dashboard camera footage showed the officer continued chasing them even after mud obscured the patrol vehicle’s windshield.

Independence paid out $400,000 in 2020 to resolve a lawsuit filed against the officer and the city. That amount was around the limit for most such lawsuits under Missouri law at the time.

But the terms of the settlement were unusual in one respect: Ross, her husband and Angotti cannot talk about it.

A confidentiality clause in the agreement specifies that “the undersigned hereby agree not to publish or cause to be published details regarding this settlement in a periodical publication.”

Angela Angotti, an attorney and Ross’ niece, was not a party to the lawsuit and is able to speak about the chase. She said a confidentiality clause seeking to limit free speech to avoid bad press was “inherently problematic.”

“It’s taxpayer dollars that are paying for this,” she said.

“I certainly wouldn’t want to be asking a judge to uphold that. That would be a difficult argument to make.”

While confidentiality clauses are common in agreements between private entities, policing and legal experts said this confidentiality clause was different because one of the parties is a public agency. They also said the clause could be viewed as retaliation for talking to the media or even as hush money, and that it violates First Amendment protections.

Additionally, such a clause can prevent the public from understanding how police policies impact public safety.

Since April 2019, the City of Independence has paid out more than $3.88 million to settle lawsuits related to chases resulting in crashes with innocent bystanders, according to records obtained by The Star. Those payouts included crashes involving four deaths and nine injuries.

The cases were filed by innocent bystanders — people like Ross and her father, who were minding their business when they became collateral damage in police chases. In 2022, Independence police engaged in far more car chases, causing more injuries, than any other police agency in the Kansas City area, according to a monthslong investigation by The Star.

No other settlements involving chases reviewed by The Star included the confidentiality clause. That includes four other settlements with Independence involving seven injuries and two fatalities, and four agreements from other cities involving three injuries and one fatality.

Mark Pedroli, a St. Louis area attorney who has worked on government transparency issues, said he does not agree to settlements with a public entity seeking a confidentiality clause.

The inclusion of the clause in Ross and Robert Angotti’s case “could be retaliatory,” he said, since she had spoken to the media after the chase.

“It begins to look like hush money,” Pedroli said.

Meg Lewis, a spokeswoman for the City of Independence, said the settlement was prepared based on negotiations between the parties and that it was “standard language.”

When asked if Ross’ appearance in the TV story factored into the inclusion of the confidentiality clause, and whether it was retaliatory, Lewis declined to comment further.

When The Star requested the dashboard camera footage from the police chase that injured Ross and her father, the city initially denied having a recording.

But after being shown KSHB’s story, which included the footage, the city provided the video.

Seat belt violation

The Jan. 26, 2019, chase began after Independence Police Officer Nick Langsdale reportedly saw a driver of a Ford F-150 who wasn’t wearing a seat belt near 23rd Street and Harvard Avenue.

Dashcam video shows the truck turn from the main road onto a residential street and accelerate. At one point the truck drives onto a lawn, flinging mud onto the officer’s windshield.

Langsdale continues chasing even though the patrol car’s window becomes smeared with mud. The video shows the officer’s visibility is greatly reduced.

In a report, Langsdale wrote that speeds hit 84 mph.

At the intersection of Sterling Avenue and Blue Ridge Boulevard, the driver ran a red light and struck Ross’ car. The vehicles spun, Ross’ car hit a crosswalk pole and they both came to a stop on a residential lawn.

Within 10 seconds, the two police cars that had been chasing the suspect arrived at the scene.

“What are you doing, idiot?” one of the officers asked the driver as he was being arrested after trying to run away.

A 7-year-old boy in the suspect’s vehicle cried out, “I feel like I’m going to die.”

Authorities then say over a radio that an elderly man, Robert Angotti, Ross’ father, needs to be extricated.

Another dashcam angle shows damage to the passenger side of Ross’ vehicle as fire department crews pry the crushed door off and eventually load Angotti onto a stretcher.

He and Ross were taken to a hospital. The fleeing driver and the 7-year-old were also transported to hospitals. Another passenger complained of minor soreness, but refused treatment at the scene, a police report said.

Angela Angotti said the more she learned about the circumstances — the reason for the chase, that it went through a residential area and that a child was in the truck — the more upset she became.

“Then when we saw the video — it was even more upsetting,” she said.

“A law enforcement officer would have pulled someone over for driving around with a windshield like that because it’s not safe,” she said.

“For some reason it’s fine for the Independence Police Department to go on a high-speed chase down a residential area for a supposed seat belt violation with their windshield almost completely blocked by mud.”

Langsdale left the Independence Police Department in July 2020, about a month before the settlement was finalized. He has an inactive police license, according to the Missouri Department of Public Safety. He did not respond to text messages seeking comment for this story.

‘Grossly reckless’

Angela Angotti said that her family wanted to avoid a lawsuit.

“I know my family,” she said. “They would have not filed a lawsuit or done anything and would have gone up and shaken hands with the Independence Police Department and even the officer that made the mistake and forgiven them and just, you know, said ’You know, I know, you didn’t mean any harm,’ if they had just changed the policy.”

Independence police officers are allowed to chase for any reason, including minor traffic infractions such as not wearing a seat belt.

Independence Police Department's policy on pursuits by The Kansas City Star on Scribd

The Police Department’s position contradicts a nationwide trend of implementing stricter policies.

Gareth Jones, a former police officer who has studied chases since the 1990s and served on a Canadian civilian oversight board on police conduct, said over the years, there has been “an increasing awareness that A) police pursuits are inherently dangerous B) they should only be engaged in circumstances where there’s an immediate need to actually engage.”

”Obviously, that point comes far, far sooner if the alleged offense is a broken headlight, as opposed to someone the officer reasonably suspects is on their way to commit a homicide,” he said.

Angela Angotti said she wants to know what Independence’s decision-making process has been when it comes to continuing to allow chases for any reason.

“The cost benefit analysis, what is it?”

“How much money is it going to take for them to change their mind? How many millions of tax dollars is the government going to have to pay out for them to change their policy and prioritize the citizens that they’re supposed to serve and protect?” she said.

“How many people have to die? How many people have to be injured? What is it going to take?”

In Independence, the police chief and the department’s leadership team are responsible for setting policy. The chief reports to the city manager.

In an interview with The Star, Police Chief Adam Dustman said his department’s chase policy was strong and that it was crafted “for what works for our department in our community and every community is different.”

When people feel like they have been wronged, he continued, they have a right to seek recourse through litigation.

“Their perspective changes just like any of ours would,” he said of innocent bystanders who have been injured.

“So obviously, I understand that they feel like the police bear some responsibility, but I guess my message to them is I’m sorry for what you had to go through. But I would say you need to place the blame where the blame belongs and that is on the suspect.”

In May 2019, Ross and her father filed a lawsuit against Langsdale and the City of Independence.

The lawsuit questioned why Langsdale would chase someone at 80 mph for a seat belt violation.

The officer continued chasing the driver “at a time when the risk of injuries to others substantially outweighed the necessity of enforcing the seat belt laws,” the lawsuit said.

“Langsdale was grossly reckless,” Ross and Robert Angotti claimed in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also said they experience ongoing symptoms as a result of their injuries from the wreck.

The $400,000 settlement was approved by the City Council in executive session.

The case concluded in August 2020 with the agreement stipulating that Ross, Angotti and their spouses stay silent about the settlement.

Jean Maneke, an attorney for the Missouri Press Association, said that “might be an indication that the city was trying to gag this person.”

A public entity, she continued, cannot enforce the clause because by law, they have to disclose the terms of a settlement and can talk about it. However, no Missouri case addresses what happens if someone violates the agreement. So, it is unclear what the consequences could be.

Settlement for 2019 Indepen... by The Kansas City Star

While a few cases reviewed by The Star included a protective order, none of the court or lawsuit records included a clause specifically prohibiting speaking with the media, except in Ross’ case.

Lauren Bonds, executive director of the National Police Accountability Project, said public access to information is critical to understanding how public safety is conducted in the community.

And for victims, telling their story can be a powerful part of the healing process.

A confidentiality provision “is just kind of an injustice on top of an injustice even if you did get a favorable settlement in terms of being able to receive money,” Bonds said.

How we reported this

After two innocent bystanders were killed in a police chase in March in Independence, Star reporters began looking into law enforcement pursuits in the Kansas City area. Over the next nine months, the reporters filed more than 140 public records requests with more than 60 local law enforcement agencies across the metro. They gathered police pursuit policies and documents recording chases, crashes and injuries over a period of five years.

Reporters also obtained investigative case files from serious and fatal wrecks, including dashboard camera recordings. They reviewed court documents from lawsuits and legal settlements. In all, the team examined more than 4,500 pages of documents, allowing them to identify patterns in police pursuits and practices in the metro.

They also spoke with more than 60 people, including innocent bystanders who were injured in police chases, families of victims killed in pursuits, police officials, attorneys and academics who have been studying the topic for decades. They interviewed a person in prison serving a sentence for killing four people in a crash during a police chase in 2018.

The project is published in a series of eight stories, with videos of interviews and crashes, as well as infographics showing the scope of police pursuits in the metro.

Credits

Katie Moore, Glenn E. Rice and Bill Lukitsch | Reporters

Emily Curiel and Nick Wagner | Visuals

Monty Davis | Video Editing

Neil Nakahodo | Illustrations & Design

David Newcomb | Development & Design