The Columbus City Council on Monday approved another major payout of more than a half-million taxpayer dollars to pay attorneys' fees in a losing federal lawsuit involving city police officers.
As a result of Columbus police arresting and jailing the wrong person for five nights during a 2018 reckless-driving investigation, City Council paid $545,211 in related attorneys' fees ordered by a U.S. District Court judge.
In December, The Dispatch reported that Council had approved paying $350,000 from the general fund to Terry Scott Caskey, who had brought the federal civil rights suit against Columbus police officers Nathan Fenton and Charles R. Harshbarger. Caskey was the owner of a car that had a burned-out taillight and that had made some minor misdemeanor traffic violations while driving in Franklinton in 2018.
After the officers turned on their emergency lights and siren, the car also made some dangerous driving maneuvers, almost causing an accident at one point, police said.
A federal jury found that the officers unlawfully arrested Caskey because he wasn't driving the car. His roommate later admitted to be the person behind the wheel that night, according to a court document.
"They thought they identified the driver," City Solicitor General Rich Coglianese told the City Council. The city took the case to a jury trial in November and lost, and the $545,211 Council was approving Monday was for Caskey's attorney fees, which were approved by a federal judge at a rate of approximately $500 per hour.
The city of Columbus often chooses to settle such cases out of court simply to avoid potential attorneys' fees. When it does go to trial, the city attempts to oppose excessive fees, "and the judge just makes a decision," and the city is essentially required to pay it, Coglianese told The Dispatch after the meeting.
Over the last several years the city has paid out millions of dollars to settle lawsuits claiming excessive force and lapses of judgment by Columbus police officers and other issues involving city firefighters and a 911 dispatcher.
The Dispatch reported last year that Columbus taxpayers have paid nearly $18 million since 2020 to settle lawsuits related to police use of force, including $5.75 million to protesters who were pepper-sprayed, struck with rubber bullets or other nonfatal force during the 2020 racial justice protests after the death of George Floyd Jr.
The single largest legal payout in the city's history was $10 million to the family of Andre Hill, an unarmed Black man shot in December 2020 by officer Adam Coy while responding to a nonemergency noise complaint. Coy is facing murder charges in Hill's death, but the case has not gone to trial because Coy has been undergoing cancer treatments.
@Reporter Bush
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