No justice in DeOnte Rawlings settlement

A settlement in a civil suit is akin to a plea bargain in a criminal case. It’s a deal that allows the contending parties to avoid trial, where they would risk losing and also have to pay buckets of dough in legal costs. But is justice served when a case is settled? Rarely, if ever. That certainly is my impression of the way the District settled the claim by the family of DeOnte Rawlings, who was killed in 2007 in a shootout with off-duty police.

The family sued the city for $100 million for wrongful death. On Thursday, with the trial about to begin, the attorney general announced the city had settled the case for a secret sum. My sources tell me the number was in the neighborhood of $900,000.