TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida sheriff has been ordered by a jury to pay $15 million to the dad and mom of an adolescent who died whereas making an attempt to cross a freeway after being kicked out of the state fair by deputies.
The 10-person jury reached its verdict Thursday night in Tampa federal court docket within the case of Andrew Joseph III, a Black 14-year-old who was killed on Interstate 4 in 2014 after he was booted from the Florida State Fair following a disturbance involving a number of youngsters.
The jury verdict culminates greater than six years of court docket motion. Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister, who may attraction the decision, issued an announcement Friday expressing sympathy for the Joseph household.
“Losing a child is a heartbreaking and eternal grief that no parent should have to face, and we continue to keep the Joseph family in our prayers,” Chronister stated in an electronic mail.
The jury discovered Chronister’s division 90% accountable for the kid’s death, with Joseph assigned 10%. The cash can be cut up evenly between his dad and mom, Andrew Joseph Jr. and Deanna Joseph.
“That child didn’t do nothing wrong,” Joseph Jr. stated after the decision, based on media outlets. “Fifteen million (dollars) put some respect on it.”
“We are elated at this moment,” Deanna Joseph added.
The teenager wound up on Interstate 4 after he and others have been kicked out of the fair for what deputies described as an altercation that included knocking over fair patrons and stealing from distributors.
Attorneys for the defendants stated Joseph refused a suggestion for a trip from his soccer coach and as a substitute determined to attempt to cross the freeway to succeed in the primary gate.
“It was not foreseeable that someone would leave and enter the interstate,” lawyer Robert Fulton stated.
The plaintiffs’ lawyer stated the boy ought to by no means have been positioned in such a susceptible scenario by authorities.
“A kid should never have been put in this position,” lawyer Chris Anulewicz instructed the jury. “He should not have been put in the position of trying to do this on his own.”