Even after settling with the city of Birmingham, Ala., one inmate will remain locked up, and as it turns out, his lawyers will get more of a payout than he will, AL.com reports.
Inmate Anthony Warren settled for $460,000 in a police-brutality lawsuit, but under the terms approved by the City Council and Birmingham Mayor William Bell, Warren will only pocket $1,000, while his attorneys will receive $359,000 in fees and he’ll have to shell out an additional $100,000 in expenses, the news site report.
The lawsuit accused five Birmingham cops of using excessive force when they beat up Warren after finally catching him at the end of a high-speed chase in 2008, the news site notes.
According to the report, Warren incited the chase after he tried to get away from a narcotics officer, leading the authorities on a 20- to 25-minute car chase across multiple cities. Warren reportedly hit a school bus, a patrol car and a Hoover police officer who was trying to lay down tire-puncture strips across U.S. Highway 31 in an attempt to stop him.
The fleeing convict was subdued only when his vehicle flipped over.
"During the chase Mr. Warren endangered the lives of numerous innocent civilians and police officers," Birmingham officials said in a written statement, according to AL.com. "The chase ended shortly after Mr. Warren struck a Hoover police officer with his vehicle on Highway 31. Although deadly force was warranted at various points during the chase, the officers testified that their goal was to preserve Mr. Warren's life and the lives of innocent bystanders."
According to the website, a dashboard camera on a police vehicle does show officers striking Warren, but for "less than 10 seconds" as he was on the ground.
The officers involved in the beating were acquitted of criminal charges earlier. However, the 44-year-old convict is currently serving out a 20-year prison sentence connected to an attempted-murder charge for the injury of the Hoover officer he hit.
Read more at AL.com.