A federal judge has approved the settlement over a botched raid of an Atlanta gay bar last year, in which plaintiffs will collect $1 million and the Atlanta mayor has apologized and promised changes in police procedures.

Here are the press releases from the parties–first from Mayor Kasim Reed, then from the plaintiffs.

Statement of Mayor Kasim Reed on Calhoun Settlement

ATLANTA – On behalf of the City of Atlanta, the Atlanta City Council, and the Atlanta Police Department, I am pleased to announce that our settlement with the Plaintiffs in the Atlanta Eagle lawsuit has been approved by the Federal Court.

The allegations made by the Plaintiffs, that certain Atlanta Police officers engaged in inappropriate conduct at the Atlanta Eagle on September 10, 2009, have been a matter of serious concern to me for some time.  

I believe that what occurred that evening should not have happened and should not happen again.  As Mayor of Atlanta, I feel pain for anyone mistreated in our city and apologize to each Plaintiff in the Calhoun case.  

This week’s settlement agreement is a step forward, and I hope, the beginning of a healing process, part of a number of steps I’ve taken since becoming Mayor of the City of Atlanta. The Plaintiffs and the City of Atlanta, as part of the settlement agreement, have agreed upon clear steps which will strengthen and improve our law enforcement capabilities and help ensure that an incident such as this will not happen again in our city.  These reforms include training, education, and revising applicable policies and procedures.

I believe that the lessons learned here, and the resulting reforms, will have a positive impact on future relations between the Atlanta Police Department, the LGBT community and the residents of the City of Atlanta, and that the rights of all of our citizens will be better safeguarded as a result.

I would like to acknowledge the members of the Blue Ribbon Commission who counseled me and volunteered their time to assist with the mediation process: Lawrie Demorest, Burt Tillman, Jeremy Burnette, Lee Schreter and Lawrence Ashe.  Thank you for your service and commitment to the City of Atlanta.

I also want to express my personal appreciation to our City Attorney, Cathy Hampton, whose leadership was instrumental in settling this case.

Our diversity is our strength.  As Mayor, I look forward to working with our entire community to ensure we are a more caring and compassionate city.

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The parents of Joshua Brown, the 17-year-old driver killed in 2003 when he lost control of his car on a stretch of wet highway north of Cartersville, reached a $750,000 settlement with the Georgia Department of Transportation just before the case was to go to a jury Friday.

Attorney Robin Frazer Clark, who represents Alan and LuGina Brown, hammered out the deal with lawyers from the office of Attorney General Thurbert E. Baker in the closing hours of a week-long trial described by Fulton County State Court Judge Susan Forsling as a “difficult case on a number of levels” because of the emotional tenor of the testimony and the technical details related to the highway’s engineering. Read more »

In what a government press release called the largest settlement in the history of the Northern District of Georgia, pharmaceutical manufacturer Allergan Inc. has agreed to plead guilty and pay $600 million to resolve its criminal and civil liability arising from the company’s unlawful promotion of its biological product, Botox, for uses not approved as safe and effective by the Food and Drug Administration.

The resolution, announced by Atlanta U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates, includes a criminal fine and forfeiture totaling $375 million and a civil settlement with the federal government and the states of $225 million.

“This global resolution marks the end of an investigation that exemplifies what can be accomplished when there is cooperation between law enforcement agencies sharing information and working together,” said Yates in the press release. Read more »

One of the many challenges for the nine lawyers representing the plaintiff and three defendants during  the two-week malpractice trial in Nonnie Hawkins v. DeKalb Medical Center, et. al was helping the jury keep track of the hundreds of witnesses, including 18 doctors for the defense alone. (Read the full story at dailyreportonline.com.)

“We brought you the best docs in town,” defense attorney Rolfe Martin of Owen, Gleaton, Egan, Jones & Sweeney told the jury. Martin said he estimated the combined experience of the medical expert witnesses in the trial at 250 years.

To help the jury remember one of his experts, Martin said, “Remember the one with the crazy eyebrows?” Read more »

WMAZ-TV in Macon reports that a Twiggs County jury awarded a Houston County woman more than $500,000  on Friday because her former Pentecostal preacher labeled her a “fornicator.”

The woman’s attorney, John Kennedy of Macon, told WMAZ that the slander verdict came after a week-long jury trial.  Kennedy said the preacher had no evidence his client was unfaithful to her former husband, but testified that she “wore dresses that were a little short.” According to the complaint that is posted on the WMAZ website, the preacher made the statement to justify to the church’s congregation his daughter’s romantic relationship with the plaintiff’s ex-husband. The award included $236,241.68 in attorney fees.
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