• 22
  • January
    2012

Community leaders in Tallahassee, Florida recently established a settlement with the family of a woman used by local law enforcement for a drug sting and was killed in the process. City commissioners voted and agreed to settle the wrongful death lawsuit for $2.6 million. The victim's family will receive $200,000 right away, but it could take years until they receive the rest, as they must first wait for Florida government to pass the claims bill.

The 23-year-old victim's parents filed the lawsuit following her death in 2008. The woman was initially arrested by police for possession of marijuana and prescription drugs without written documentation of her prescription. Police used the girl as an undercover informant to use on a sting to catch other drug offenders.

In the 2008 sting, police equipped the woman with $13,000 and was instructed to purchase drugs and even a gun from expected drug dealers. She was sent on this mission alone and it went terribly wrong. The alleged drug dealers shot the woman five times and stole her money. Police later stumbled upon her remains thrown in a ditch about 50 miles away from the rural Tallahassee site of the drug deal.

The killers were later tracked down because the money they took, and later spent, was marked. They stole the woman's car and cleaned it with bleach after they were done with it. The two killers drove to Orlando where they spent some of the marked money.

The men convicted of the killing, ages 26 and 29, are serving life sentences in prison for their deeds. They were residents of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Following the woman's death, legislators passed a new law named after her, which stated police must provide adequate protection for informants. The officer in charge of supervising the woman was fired from the squad, but was later re-hired.

Source: Miami Herald, "City settles informant death suit for $2.6 million," James L. Rosica, Jan. 6, 2012