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*The $37 million jury award in the Baltimore County police shooting death of 23-year-old Korryn Gaines is one of the largest ever against law enforcement officers in Maryland.
The award was broken up by family member with $32 million awarded to her son Kodi, $300,000 to Korryn Gaines’ father, $300,000 to Korryn Gaines’ mother, $300,000 to Korryn Gaines’ estate, and $4.5 million to Karsyn Courtney, Korryn Gaines’ daughter, per BET.com.
But legal experts question whether her family will actually see all that money. As noted by the L.A. Times, “Maryland’s cap on local governments’ liabilities in such cases — and the propensity of judges to lower large awards on appeal — make it unlikely Gaines’ relatives and her young son, Kodi, will see the full amounts.”
“While that’s a tremendous verdict, it’s certainly going to be subjected to challenges left and right,” said attorney Andrew G. Slutkin, who was not involved in the Gaines case, but is regularly involved in large civil claims cases.
“This will be litigated for years,” Slutkin said. “It’s going to be subjected to many motions in the trial court and the appellate courts as well.”
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23-year-old Gaines was shot and killed in her home after a standoff with police two years ago. Kodi — who was 5 at the time — was struck by gunfire twice, in the face and the elbow.
A jury of six women found that the first shot from the police officer who fired at Gaines was not reasonable, and therefore violated her and her son’s civil rights under state and federal statutes.
After the decision was announced, Gaines’ family cried and embraced each other in the courtroom.
“I don’t know how anyone can just extinguish a life, then hide behind a badge,” Korryn Gaines’ mother, Rhanda Dormeus, said. “I can’t even get out of bed to do my activities of daily life. I was a registered nurse, a psychiatric nurse. This has ripped me apart. I am not mad with Officer Ruby. I don’t have any space to be mad because my heart is too broken.”
Gaines’ father explained how this money will greatly help Kodi to move forward.
“For Kodi, it means a lot. Now he’s going to be able to get the help he needs. It’s a sad situation what happened, and I’m very glad the jury came back and saw what was going on in that courtroom wasn’t right, and what happened Aug. 1 wasn’t right either,” Korryn Gaines’ father, Corey Cunningham, said.
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