VIERA -- A jury awarded $900,000 in damages to the family of a
29-year-old man Thursday after finding the Brevard County
Sheriff's Office negligent in its handling of a road chase.
The award was handed down after five hours of deliberations by
a six-member jury at the Moore Justice Center.
"I'm happy for the family," said Charlie Roberts, a
Rockledge-based attorney representing the family of Steven
Clendenning in the four-day trial.
The civil suit against the Sheriff's Office stems from the Feb.
3, 1999, decision by a deputy to call off the pursuit of an Orange
County man speeding west on a foggy stretch of State Road 520.
The sheriff's deputies, however, continued to follow without
emergency lights while the suspect drove without headlights,
records show. The suspect, who officials said had a gun and had
been under house arrest, was killed when his pickup collided with
the 1977 Oldsmobile driven by Clendenning, records show.
Clendenning, a department store stock person, died 17 days
later at Wuesthoff Hospital in Rockledge. Brevard County Sheriff
Phil Williams, who attended trial testimony in Circuit Court Judge
George Maxwell's courtroom earlier in the week, did not return
several phone calls late Thursday.
The award, if not reversed by an appeal, would be paid through
a liability insurance fund for the Sheriff's Office.
"I'm not prepared to comment on the jury award," Chief Deputy
Bob Sarver said late Thursday.
"Under our current policy, if there's a forcible felony or if
someone poses an imminent public threat, then we initiate a
pursuit," Sarver said.
Family members hoped the judgment would move police agencies to
reconsider pursuit policies.
"They tried to make excuses," 62-year-old Robert Clendenning
said of the Sheriff's Office handling of the pursuit that led to
his son's death.
"Losing my only son was very difficult. Hopefully, this will
stop other innocent people from being killed."
