"Such a pattern on the part of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office is patently demonstrable," said Searcy Denney's Darryl Lewis, who teamed with Mr. Scarola in representing Mr. Stephens during the trial.
Full Answer
Attorney Jack Scarola told the Palm Beach Post that Dontrell Stephens died Sunday from complications associated with his paralysis. Scarola represented the 28-year-old man in his civil suit against the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
Deputy Adams Lin pursued Stephens, then 20, in his patrol car after Stephens rode his bicycle across a busy road through traffic. Videotape from Lin’s dashboard camera showed that when Stephens saw Lin behind him as he rode into a duplex’s parking lot, he slowed his bike and hopped off.
A federal civil jury in 2016 had awarded Stephens $22 million after he sued, an amount Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw refused to pay. After years of negotiations, Bradshaw had offered Stephens $4.5 million, but the state Legislature went $1.5 million above that in 2020 and awarded a $6 million payment, which was approved by the governor.
Prosecutors cleared Lin of criminal wrongdoing and he remained employed by the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office.
Stephens had been hospitalized for three weeks before his death, dealing with bed sores and other issues, Scarola said. He had been left paralyzed from the waist down from the 2013 shooting.
In January 2017, Stephens was sentenced to nine months house arrest for selling a drug cocktail to an undercover agent.
Goldstein said he remembered Stephens as an affable young man who had a rough life.
Stephens, 28, died on Sunday at a Port St. Lucie hospital, a year after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a $6 million claims bill for Stephens.
Lin is still employed with the sheriff's office and has since been promoted to sergeant.