(AP) – A woman who sued Mississippi’s capital city over the death of her brother has decided to reject a settlement after officials publicly disclosed how much the city would pay his survivors, her attorney said Wednesday.

George Robinson, 62, died in January 2019, days after three Jackson police officers pulled him from a car while searching for a murder suspect.

The Jackson City Council on Tuesday approved the payment of $17,786 to settle the lawsuit that relatives of Robinson filed in state court in October 2019, WLBT-TV reported. City documents said the settlement was not an admission of liability by the city or the three officers named in the lawsuit. Robinson was Black, as are the three officers.

The payment to the relatives — including Robinson’s sister, Bettersten Wade — was approved on a unanimous vote. Wade’s attorney, Dennis Sweet III, released a letter Wednesday saying that the city of Jackson violated a confidentiality agreement that was part of the settlement. Sweet said that because of the public disclosure and because the city “appears to claim or infer some sort of perceived victory,” Wade intends to continue suing the city.

Sweet said Robinson’s family reached a separate “substantial settlement” with an ambulance company.

Councilman Kenneth Stokes said he thought the city settlement was too small, although he voted for it.

“I’m saying it just sends the wrong message about human life, especially Black people’s lives,” Stokes said. “I think a step in the right direction would’ve been to pay the family a little bit more.”

The lawsuit alleged that the three officers “brutally, viciously and mercilessly beat Mr. Robinson by striking and kicking him.”

“Mr. Robinson had not committed any crime, was not the subject of any active warrant, and was not a threat to himself or any person in the area,” the lawsuit said.

Robinson had been hospitalized for a stroke days before the police encounter and was on medication, Wade has said. He had a seizure hours after he was beaten, and he died two days later from bleeding on his brain.

Second-degree murder charges against two of the officers were dropped in the case. In August 2022, a Hinds County jury convicted former detective Anthony Fox of culpable negligence manslaughter — and then in January of this year, the Mississippi Court of Appeals overturned Fox’s conviction. A majority of the appeals court wrote that prosecutors failed to prove Fox “acted in a grossly negligent manner” or that Robinson’s death “was reasonably foreseeable under the circumstances.”

Wade is the mother of Dexter Wade, who was run over by an off-duty Jackson Police Department officer in March 2023.

Dexter Wade was buried at the Hinds County Pauper’s Cemetery. But it was October before his mother was told about the burial.

His body was exhumed Nov. 13, and an independent autopsy was conducted. A wallet found in the pocket of his jeans contained his state identification card with his home address, credit card and a health insurance card, said civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Wade’s family.

On Nov. 20, Dexter Wade’s family held a funeral for him, and he was buried in another cemetery.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – The number of interstate lights that are out due to copper wire theft in the Jackson metro has been the subject of two 3 On Your Side investigations.

[READ: Driving in the Dark: While other states crack down on copper wire theft, MS continues brainstorming strategies]

[READ: Still Driving in the Dark: Improvements to Mississippi’s interstate lighting system still months away]

Wednesday, a Mississippi Department of Transportation official provided an update on MDOT’s efforts to light up our interstates.

In January, we told you that MDOT had awarded a contract to Garver Engineering, a firm that’s currently assessing and evaluating Central Mississippi’s interstate lighting system.

Part of the firm’s project includes putting nearly $8,000,000 toward items that will make it harder for thieves to steal copper wire.

“This is a permanent repair, so it’s not a Band-Aid or anything like that,” MDOT Public Information Officer Michael Flood said.

Flood says MDOT’s leadership decided years ago that it would be a waste of taxpayer dollars to continuously repair lights that had been stripped of their copper wire because it would likely only be a matter of time before thieves struck again.

But now, Flood says he’s happy to report that progress is being made.

“In recent years, we haven’t had that good of an update. We have kind of been at a loss, so it’s nice to be at this point where we are moving forward,” he said. “We do have a contract in place to not only upgrade to LED lights but also have preventative measures in place to prevent copper theft and keep our interstates lit up. “

Some of those preventative measures include a monitoring system where MDOT is alerted if a segment of lights goes out, allowing crews to respond immediately.

Part of the project with Garver Engineering also includes doing away with bridge mounts and restricting access to wires by burying conduits underground and not having any junction boxes that are accessible from the surface level.

“We have a plan in place. It’s going to be a process. We just ask everyone to bear with us and give us some patience and time to allow us to make those repairs.”

The process is expected to last for a number of months.

Flood says he’s hopeful the firm will get to the design phase of the project toward the end of the year and then the implementation phase would follow shortly afterwards.

When asked why a project like this was not started years ago, Flood said processes like this take a lot of time – especially when the Federal Highway Administration has to be involved.

In the meantime, MDOT has been making repairs to interstate lights that were out due to the need for routine maintenance – not copper wire theft.

That includes the lights along I-55 at Meadowbrook Road and Eastover Drive, which are now working again.

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Copyright 2024 WLBT. All rights reserved.

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WTVA) — An investigation is underway following the discovery of a woman’s body in the yard of an abandoned home in Columbus, Mississippi.

Bryan Moore, the public information officer for the Columbus Police Department, said someone found the body at approximately 10:00 a.m. Tuesday morning.

Lowndes County Coroner Greg Merchant later confirmed the name of the victim as Ashanti Jade Turner, 25.

The family says she lived close to the abandoned house and that someone last saw her Sunday, April 21.

The coroner said an autopsy will be performed.

Her death is being treated as a homicide, according to the coroner.

The Columbus Police Department said in a news release that Turner’s boyfriend, Damian Peterson, is a person of interest in the investigation.

Anyone with information that may help investigators is asked to call the tip line at 1-800-530-7151.

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Copyright 2024 WLBT. All rights reserved.