The Champaign City Council voted Tuesday to approve a $2 million settlement with the estate of Ross Booker.
CHAMPAIGN — The family of a local tow-truck driver killed in a 2022 accident will receive $2 million from the city, settling a wrongful death suit.
Champaign city council members voted unanimously Tuesday night to approve the settlement with the estate of Ross Booker, a St. Joseph native who was 20 at the time of his death.
The terms of the settlement, which the family signed off on, state that the payment is not an admission of liability or fault on behalf of the city or the two Champaign police officers named in the original suit, who “intend merely to avoid further litigation and buy their peace.”
In a memo to council members in advance of Tuesday’s meeting, City Manager Dorothy David wrote that both parties involved in the suit participated in formal mediation, which “included comprehensive discussion and evaluation of the significant risks and exposure to liability if the case proceeded to trial.
“Ultimately,” she wrote, “with the assistance of the mediator, the parties reached a settlement of $2 million.”
Mr. Booker, a tow-truck driver for Tatman’s Towing in Urbana, was struck by a passing vehicle and killed on March 5, 2022, while cleaning up after an accident on Neil Street near Windsor Road.
The driver of the vehicle that hit Mr. Booker, Garrett Wingler of Tolono, was 16 at the time. In May 2022, he pleaded guilty and was fined $500 for failure to reduce speed.
The wrongful death suit filed by Mr. Booker’s family on Feb. 23, 2023, included claims against the city of Champaign, as well as police officers Anderson Agudelo Jr. and Clinton Lebeau.
Agudelo and Lebeau were among the officers who responded to the crash that Mr. Booker was helping to clean up.
The city maintains that the officers were in charge of assisting drivers and passengers involved in that crash, but the lawsuit alleged they were also controlling traffic at the Neil and Windsor intersection.
The suit claimed that Agudelo “walked with Ross Booker into the intersection where he was to clean up debris and then abandoned Ross Booker,” and that one or both officers “allowed traffic to resume travel southbound into the intersection where Ross Booker was working.”
While the defendants admitted that a squad car to the north of the intersection was removed, they denied that it was blocking traffic.
They also denied the remaining allegations, including “that defendants exerted authority over Ross Booker’s entry to the intersection.”
Two weeks ago, Agudelo and Lebeau were dismissed from the suit at the agreement of both parties.
One of the terms of the settlement was that all claims against the officers be dismissed.
Credit: Source link
