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More information about the
Brenton Butler civil case can be found on the website
of lawyer Robert J. Slama who represented Mr. Butler.
Brenton Butler
Murder on a
Sunday Morning won the academy award for feature documentary,
2001
Falsely accused teen
settles for $775,000
By Jim Schoettler and Paul
Pinkham, Times-Union staff writers , April 29, 2002
Jacksonville City Hall and
the family of falsely accused teen murder suspect Brenton Butler
settled the Butler's civil lawsuit this morning for $775,000,
family attorney Tom Fallis said.
The settlement followed three
weeks of serious negotiations between the parties over the suit,
which was filed in October. Among the allegations was that Butler
was beaten by police and wrongly jailed for six months before
being acquitted by a jury in the May 2000 robbery and slaying
of Georgia tourist Mary Ann Stephens.
Fallis said the family decided
to settle for various reasons, including concerns about how long
the case would drag out and whether it could be proved under
federal civil rights law. City officials are denying any responsibility
for what happened to Butler under the action.
Judge throws out teen's
civil claim, chastises attorney
By Paul Pinkham and Jim
Schoettler, Times-Union staff writers, April 19, 2002
An angry judge temporarily
dismissed a lawsuit filed by falsely accused teen murder suspect
Brenton Butler against Jacksonville police a second time yesterday,
saying its sloppiness and length make it read like a grade-school
storybook.
"With all the garbage
you've thrown in there, you're destroying the good case that
your client may have ...," Senior U.S. District Judge John
H. Moore II told attorney Robert Slama in court. "I think
you've probably got a pretty good case if it is provable, and
it's a darn shame he's got you for a lawyer because you are an
embarrassment to The Florida Bar."
The judge gave Butler's attorneys
10 days to refile the 115-page civil rights claim and ordered
them to limit it to 35 pages.
Butler, then 15, was tried
in 2000 for the slaying of a Georgia tourist at a Southside motel.
A jury quickly acquitted him amid allegations that police beat
a confession out of him, and police and prosecutors later admitted
they had the wrong man. A grand jury found no wrongdoing by police
but sharply criticized their handling of the case. Two other
suspects, unrelated to Butler, are awaiting trial.
Butler and his family are suing
the city and individual officers. Slama's co-counsel, Thomas
Fallis, said he has been in settlement negotiations with the
city for about two weeks.
Slama had little to say after
court about Moore's criticisms. "I think my reputation speaks
for itself," Slama said.
In a telephone interview later,
he named two law professors with expertise in civil rights litigation
he said reviewed the pleading before it was filed.
"We anticipated that the
judge would make this personal," Slama said. "You didn't
hear him get into the substantive issues of the complaint because
there are no problems with the substantive aspects of the complaint."
He told Moore in court the
pleading was difficult to pare down because federal civil rights
cases require enough facts to overcome a finding of immunity
on the part of the police.
"I don't know how the
court can evaluate these claims ... without understanding what
happened because it does tend to turn on small facts," Slama
said. "I would certainly like to file a shorter complaint.
... I don't know what the magic number of facts is."
Moore would have none of it.
"You've tried to allege
so much garbage in here that there are tons of inconsistencies,"
Moore said, pointing out as an example that the time of the slaying
listed in the complaint is 17 minutes later than the 911 call
reporting the crime. "It can be done in a legal, scholarly
way. ... Everything in your case has been done in violation of
the rules."
Fallis said he didn't think
yesterday's events would hurt Butler's case.
"The cause of action is
still there," he said. "The court is telling us to
trim down the pleadings to your best shots, not all your shots."
Fallis wouldn't criticize Slama
but said in light of Moore's criticism he is considering bringing
in additional counsel to protect his clients' interests. He said
he will take a more active role in preparing the refiling and
indicated Moore's limit of 35 pages could make the task difficult.
"In the event it gets
dismissed for a lack of facts, we have a record for appeal,"
Fallis said.
Attorney Tad Delegal, who represents
the officers, said he isn't worried about Moore's characterization
of the suit as a potentially "good case."
"It's early and none of
the discovery has been done. Every case looks good when all you
see is one side of the story," he said. Neither he nor city
attorneys would discuss Moore's criticism of Slama.
After months of publicity,
Butler's lawyers filed a 128-page lawsuit in October alleging
49 civil counts against individual detectives, their supervisors
and the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. But Moore dismissed it
as "one of the worst pleadings this court has ever read."
A 115-page amended complaint
was filed in February and trimmed ate Wednesday to 84 pages.
But Moore said that claim was improperly filed.
Moore's frustration was evident
yesterday as soon as he entered court and held up two law books.
"Before we start, I think
we ought to go back to law school," Moore said. "I
would suggest all of you, and particularly you, Mr. Slama, that
when you leave this courtroom today, you get copies of both of
these books. ... If you have them, you obviously haven't read
them."
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Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
