source: New Orleans Advocate
published: 4 November 2019
More than a decade after he was killed in a hail of gunfire by New Orleans Police Department officers, relatives of a Brother Martin High School graduate have revived their lawsuit against the city.
Family members first sued the city a month after the killing of Adolph Grimes III on New Year’s Day in 2009, but the case was put on hold while the U.S. Department of Justice considered whether to bring civil rights charges.
The feds decided not to pursue criminal charges in 2013. It wasn’t until this August, however, that the civil case sputtered to life with a new filing from the mother of Grimes’ son. With the case back in court, U.S. District Judge Barry Ashe is set to hear pretrial arguments Dec. 5.
The long pause in the case meant that relatives missed their chance to settle their claims under the administration of former Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who paid $13.3 million to resolve lawsuits over several Hurricane Katrina-era police killings.
The Grimes lawsuit centers on the unresolved controversy over what happened early on Jan. 1, 2009, as Grimes sat in a rental car in the 1700 block of Gov. Nicholls Street.
