Former Officer Michael Rosfeld likely won't pay any part of Antwon Rose settlement, experts tell Trib

Former East Pittsburgh police Officer Michael Rosfeld likely won’t pay a penny of a $2 million settlement reached in a federal civil lawsuit filed by Antwon Rose II’s family against Rosfeld and East Pittsburgh, experts familiar with civil cases said.

Instead, East Pittsburgh’s insurance company will probably cover the cost to settle the suit.

Rose’s family will receive $1.1 million, and the remainder of the money will go to the attorneys representing them, according to court filings about the settlement.

Few details about the settlement have been released. All of the parties involved in the federal settlement, including Rose’s family and their attorneys, East Pittsburgh officials and their attorneys and Rosfeld and his attorney, are not commenting on the deal.

“I think it should have been more. The fact that Officer Rosfeld will not pay a nickel of that, that’s an issue,” said Downtown attorney Todd Hollis, who isn’t associated with case but has handled similar civil lawsuits. “Those moneys are paid by an insurance company. If officers were forced to pay this, a lot of this would stop happening.”

The civil settlement comes after Rosfeld’s acquittal in March on charges including homicide for the 17-year-old Rose’s killing on June 19, 2018, traffic stop in East Pittsburgh. Rosfeld shot Rose three times as the teen ran away.

Another civil lawsuit filed by Rose’s family against the University of Pittsburgh — claiming it didn’t properly document alleged misconduct by Rosfeld while he was employed as a Pitt police officer — is still making its way through the Allegheny County court system.

The cost of litigation and the unpredictable outcome of taking a case to a judge or a jury are the main reasons settlements like that reached in the Rose case are agreed upon, attorneys told the Trib.

“These things are never a slam dunk if they end up going to trial,” said Pitt law professor and “Criminal Injustice” podcast host David Harris, who studies police behavior and cases like the one involving Rose.

Jurors aren’t eager to convict police officers of criminal charges, Harris said. But civil lawsuits are different because they don’t require a case to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

Litigating such cases is costly, Hollis said, and oftentimes people will decide to accept a settlement instead of racking up the legal bills and dealing with the length of time it takes for a case to make its way through the court system.

East Pittsburgh’s insurance carrier will cover the cost of the settlement — a common practice when municipalities are involved, according to both Harris and Hollis.

Dollar figures for settlements in these cases vary and there’s no standard used to decide how much someone can get in a case, both Harris and Hollis said, but the extent of insurance coverage plays into it.

That’s the case in the Rose settlement, where the figure is likely the maximum covered by East Pittsburgh’s insurance, Hollis and Harris said. Borough solicitor Nicholas Evashavik did not return messages seeking comment for this story.

The $2 million settlement in the Rose case is about the same amount as the $2.4 million the family of Stephon Clark agreed to in their case against the city of Sacramento, Calif., earlier this month. Clark was shot by police in March 2018 while holding a cellphone in his backyard.

In Pittsburgh, Leon Ford settled a civil suit against the city for $5.5 million. Ford was shot Nov. 11, 2012, after a traffic stop in Highland Park. He was left paralyzed. The city settled a federal lawsuit brought by Jordan Miles for $125,000. Miles accused officers of beating him when they subdued and handcuffed him after he ran from them. Police said his injuries resulted from a violent struggle to escape apprehension.

In Cleveland, the family of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old who was shot in 2014 by a police officer, settled a lawsuit against the city for $6 million in 2016

In Baltimore, Freddie Gray’s family settled for $6.4 million in their case against the city after the April 2015 death of the 25-year-old, who suffered a spinal injury while in police custody and died. As part of the settlement agreement, the city did not acknowledge any wrongdoing by police.

In 2017, a $1.5 million settlement was reached with Michael Brown’s family for his 2014 death in Ferguson, Mo.

Because the millions of dollars involved in these settlements are covered by insurance companies or paid by cities without complaint, there’s no reason for police departments to make changes to address issues that lead up to these cases, Harris said.

“It’s one of the reasons that people are frustrated in many places with the way things are,” Harris said. “This happens frequently enough and we don’t see a willingness to change.”