![]() He was also an athlete, competing in gymnastics, baseball and football. As a teen, if he wasn’t helping his mom fix up their house, he was on the lake swimming or water skiing, his mother said. ![]() So for me, it’s a win for my brother and he’d be proud.”ĭavid Novak grew up at the family home in Nine Mile Falls. “By giving this settlement, they know there’s a good chance that they don’t win this. “I feel like they’re admitting that they are wrong by giving this settlement,” Jenkins said. That sentiment is shared by Novak’s family. The city did not admit to wrongdoing in the settlement nor commit to any type of reform, Thorp said, but the Novak family hopes the significant dollar amount will lead the department to make changes.Ī settlement that large suggests “that they’re going to take a look at things and make some changes,” Thorp said of the police department. In their initial suit, the Novak family did not seek a specific dollar amount, instead leaving it open for a jury to decide should they prevail at trial. Rondi Thorp, Novak’s attorney, said they had been negotiating with the city all week. “It has been a very emotional day,” Debbie Novak said. But early in the morning, Debbie Novak got a call that the city was ready to settle. Jury selection in the case began Monday and opening arguments in the case were set for Thursday morning. Department of Justice review of the Spokane Police Department’s practices and procedures. ![]() Zehm died of asphyxiation at the hands of Spokane police following an unprovoked and violent encounter with Officer Karl Thompson.Ī federal jury later convicted Thompson for using excessive force and lying to federal agents. It eclipses the $1.67 million the city paid to settle the wrongful death suit filed by the family of Otto Zehm in 2012. The $4 million settlement is among the largest payouts in a wrongful death lawsuit against the city involving its police force. Resolving the case moves everyone forward from what has been a difficult time for all involved.” The decision to settle was made independently by the City’s excess carrier. In a statement provided Thursday evening, the city wrote: “The City was prepared to present a case that clearly outlined the events that evening. “So our goal and our hope is that this saves lives in other ways and that when somebody is in uniform … that they will think twice before they use excessive force or take a life.” “We can’t bring David back,” Debbie Novak said outside the courtroom after the settlement was announced. Rankin remains employed with the city and has since been promoted to detective.ĭavid Novak’s mother, Debbie Novak, and his sister, Crystal Jenkins, were set to have their lawsuit go to trial after David’s father, Michael Novak, settled with the city for $250,000 last week. The family filed suit against the city days later. Prosecutors cleared Spokane police Officer Brandon Rankin of any wrongdoing in August 2019. The noises that sounded like gunshots turned out to be Novak slamming a baseball bat against his own truck. 7, 2019, after neighbors reported he was drunk, shouting racial slurs at them and shooting a gun toward their home.īut Novak didn’t have a gun. The settlement was announced the day the family’s wrongful death lawsuit was set to go to trial in Spokane County Superior Court.ĭavid Novak, 35, was shot and killed the night of Jan. A next-door neighbor of the Harts when they lived in Oregon told The Associated Press that they didn't eat sugar, grew their own vegetables and liked to go on camping trips.The city of Spokane and its insurers will pay $4 million as part of a legal settlement with the family of a man shot and killed by police in 2019. ![]() The family called themselves the Hart Tribe, and Jennifer and Sarah home-schooled the children, who were all adopted. "They preferred to lay (around) and read books and hang out with their chickens." Devonte Hart with his family in Astoria, Oregon, in 2014. "They weren't plugged into the technology," she said. Zippy Lomax, a friend of the family since 2012, told The Oregonian that the Harts loved to travel and were always "going somewhere special." "It appeared the family may have left for a temporary trip as there were many family belongings still in the home as well as a pet and some chickens," the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office said, citing the Clark County officers. Police in Clark County, Washington, said they had entered the Hart home and determined that no one was still there. The family was from Woodland, Washington, a rural community about 500 miles north of the accident site, and it was unclear why they were traveling in California.
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