In a historic wrongful death case involving a police officer, a judge on Friday approved a $5 million settlement against the City of Detroit and a former cop who killed a prominent attorney in a 2021 crash after blowing a red light with sirens and emergency lights blaring.
The settlement marks the first time in Michigan that a police officer has been successfully sued in civil court and criminally charged for killing a person after driving through a red light at high speeds during an emergency run, according attorney Arnold Reed, who represented the victim’s estate.
The victim was Clifford Woodards II, a well-known local attorney and media personality who was killed in 2021 after police struck his sedan at 1 a.m. while trying to catch robbery suspects. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Woodards’ daughter Melissa Connelly, who will receive the settlement.
Read more at Detroit Free Press
