City’s Insurers Agree To Pay Charles Eimers’ Family $900,000 to Settle Excessive Force Case

by Naja and Arnaud Girard…

Eight attorneys, eight police officers, the City Manager, the Chief of Police, and Joshua Eimers met yesterday in a conference room at City Hall to try to settle the civil rights lawsuit regarding the death of Charles Eimers. Eimers, 61, was the father of four who died a year ago on South Beach at the hands of Key West police officers.

Yesterday, the case was tentatively settled when the City’s insurance carrier agreed to pay $900,000 to the Eimers children.

“It was never about money,” said Joshua Eimers, Charles Eimers youngest son, “It was about uncovering the truth. We felt we were lied to. The lawsuit was mainly a means to find out what happened to our father. We still don’t know everything. But we got some accountability.”

“What about an apology?”

“No, they told us we would never get that. Which I thought was odd. Even in Ferguson, where there was no video and a lot more questions, the Chief of Police apologized.”

“So, no apologies?”

“The City Manager shook my hand and I felt he meant it. He seemed like a real nice guy.”

At the Horan law firm on Whitehead Street one of the lead attorneys in the Eimers case, Darren Horan, had some surprising information. “The City’s insurance policy only covers up to one million dollars,” he said, “You can sue the officers for $10 Million, but all you’re really going to get is the insurance money.”

This is the way it works: For each incident the insurance is capped at one million dollars. The lawsuit may have already eaten up about $100,000 in defense attorney fees from that war chest. Quite possibly all that’s left is $900,000.

In the settlement agreement, the City admits no wrong doing or liability nor do any of the officers.

The parties agreed to blame everything on Gary lee Lovette, the officer who had the misfortune of inadvertently recording himself on a Taser device admitting: “We killed him.”

After being  presented with the evidence, the insurer agreed to settle the claim against Officer Lovette for $900,000. All the other claims are forever withdrawn.

So officer Lovette is thrown to the wolves. Of course that doesn’t explain how the dashcam videos disappeared, who butchered and edited the audio recordings, why KWPD failed to inform the medical examiner and why they waited to call for the autopsy, even 24 hours after they could no longer pretend not to know of Mr. Eimers’ death.

Officer Lovette was certainly not the only one on Eimers back, and he was not the only one who made up stories under oath about Eimers “sitting” or “trying to walk” or “fighting” or “never having his face in the sand.”  And his inadvertently audiotaped confession included other officers: “WE killed a man.”

We asked Joshua Eimers if there was anything the defense attorneys had said during negotiations that raised a doubt in his mind about how his father died.

“They kept bringing up my father’s health.”

“Whether he was a walking heart attack?”

“Yes, that really was the only thing they had. But I know my dad was not in such bad health. His doctor told us he might need surgery in 3-5 years and that would improve his health. No one ever said that he was a walking heart attack. “

In the end the insurers are offering the maximum they can pay under the policy. Arguably, their lawyers must believe the case had all the merit it needed.

It was an emotional evening talking about the man we in Key West knew so little about. Joshua was leaving early the next morning. We drove him around town after a dinner at Azure. People were singing in the bars, cruising on their bicycles in the quiet streets.

“My dad would have loved it here,” said Joshua. We stopped on South Beach, walked on the sand, listened to the ocean.

The City Commissioners must now decide whether to go along with the settlement. There will be a closed session when the Commissioners will vote to accept or reject the agreement reached during mediation on Thursday. It might be a hard sell to some Commissioners who have adamantly denied that any officers were at fault.

A story, which started a year ago with a lie about a man collapsing on the beach, may finally come to an end.

Stay tuned.

~~~~~~~~~~

To access all articles by Naja and Arnaud Girard on the in-custody death of Charles Eimers click here.

 

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37 thoughts on “City’s Insurers Agree To Pay Charles Eimers’ Family $900,000 to Settle Excessive Force Case

  1. Unbelievable! Another twist to the Eimers murder. Joshua Eimers rolls over to the City of Key West. Joshua stated his family brought the lawsuit, not for money, but to find out the truth about his fathers death. If he wanted the truth, why did he settle? Now he will never find out the truth, Donnie Lee is still the chief of the gestapo, Lovette, Garbo, and ten other LIARS are still patrolling the streets, the city commissioners still remain silent. The homeless, the suspected homeless, the viscious van dwelling criminal are still in danger. Thank you Joshua Eimers, you could have done so much good for Key West!

    1. It’s hard for me to imagine, Kurt, that Josh and his siblings want to do anything good for Key West, after what Key West did to their father. My concern and question is, in settling and taking the money, instead of continuing to try to get to the bottom of it, did Josh and his siblings hinder, or abort, what their father told the cop who made the traffic stop that he came to Key West to do: God’s work?

      1. Sloan, well may be not for Key West, but for homeless everywhere. Now that they may have settled (we all know the city commission will agree as it costs them nothing) does anybody believe the DOJ will follow up on anything? Holder and his crew will do or say nothing unless you are a black man beaten and killed by white police. Joshua Eimers and family will never get the truth once they settle. They aborted for a quick payoff, no reality, no truth. After 40% to the lawyers they settle for $540,000 for their fathers life. The winner here is Horan law firm. I feel sorry for the Eimers family, they traded that money for the truth! Karma’s a bitch!

  2. I learned of the settlement last night, when former State Attorney Dennis Ward called me with the news. We felt it was very early in the case for it to settle, so it probably was the liability insurance company’s call because it didn’t like the case.

    Given the city’s history of circling the wagons and defending to the hilt lawsuits filed against the city, I told Dennis I doubted City Attorney Shawn Smith had anything to do with the settlement being reached; the insurance carrier made the call. Dennis said he’d heard there was a $1,000,000 policy limit. So, I opined that $900,000 was most of that, and if the case had been tried and the defendants prevailed, the Eimers family would have gotten nothing.

    I called Naja and told her how I had learned of the settlement, and that it appeared to be the insurance company’s call from the defendants’ side.

    I added, there is a thing that happens in lawsuits for damages, when a liability insurance company is involved. The plaintiff lawyers offer to settle for the policy limits, whatever they are, and if the defendant’s insurance carrier does not accept the settlement offer, and if the verdict is more than for the policy limits, the insurance company and its defense counsel can be sued by the defendant for the amount of the verdict over the policy limits, on the ground that the insurance carrier and its lawyers were negligent in not settling for the policy limits. For regardless of the policy limits, the defendant is liable for the full amount of the verdict. Liability insurance carriers and insurance defense lawyers don’t like having to end up paying more than the policy limits. So in cases the view as dangerous, they settle for the policy limits.

    In today’s Citizen article on the settlement, David Paul Horan, whose law firm the Eimers family engaged to represent them, is quoted as saying the city had a $1,000,000 policy and the city never settles for over the policy limits, and the litigation would have dragged a long time, there could have been appeals. The Citizen article also reports 40 percent of the settlement goes to the Eimers family’s lawyers.

    While I hope the Key West Citizens (Police) Review Board’s request to the FBI and US Department of Justice launch a criminal investigation in the Eimers case is favorably received and acted upon by those two federal agencies, it is troubling, and Dennis Ward raised this when we talked last night, that the FBI furnished State Attorney Catherine Vogel with the ringer Josh Eimers mentions in his video interview: a retired? FBI expert witness who makes a living testifying for police officers in court cases, to help them win those cases.

    Just my opinion, there is no way Vogel used that ringer for any other reason than to get the grand jury to let the cops, KWPD and the city walk. That was her intent. The entire grand jury proceeding was a sham. Will the FBI and Department of Justice now investigate and prosecute what the FBI sabotaged?

    Meanwhile, will the mayor and the six city commissioners approve the $900,000 settlement agreement? I would love to be a fly on the wall during that conversation behind closed doors. If they do approve it, I can’t wait to see the spin they put on it. But then, maybe I already saw it in the Citizen article. Disgusting.

    The Citizen went out of its way to smear Charles Eimers. I had so hoped somebody would get a hold of his drivers license to see if it had been bent or creased, which, if it had, would have indicated the cop who made the traffic stop jerked Eimers around and Eimers thought the stop was over, because he wasn’t going to get his driver’s license back, and that’s why he “left the scene.”

    Charles did indeed come to Key West to do God’s work, but not in the way he ever would have imagined during the drive down here. Now remains to be seen in what other ways his work for God might play out in a city he proved beyond any doubt does not practice “We are all created equal members of One Human Family.” The cops thought he was homeless, living in his PT cruiser, and they treated him like he was homeless, and here we are.

    Astounding, Police Chief Donie Lee has not fired Officer Gary Lee Lovette. Read the Citizen article, if you get a chance: http://www.keysnews.com. Take along plenty of Malox. I will copy and use and maybe shred a bit that article in my post today at http://www.goodmoringkeywest.com,

  3. sloan you need not worry about being a fly on the wall of that behind closed doors special settlement meeting since after the case is resolved the special meeting becomes public record and we shall see what the commission and their legal councils said.

    I’m deeply disappointed if there is this settlement and the case is ‘closed’ at this very early time in discovery. so much more needed to be done to force a house cleaning of the kwtd starting with the chief of [ ] fill in the blank.
    also so much more needed be done in exposing the other agencies influance like fdle and the state attorney in this abomination of a coverup.

    I do pray the eimers family has a change of heart and goes full bore in the litigation and fight for the life of their father that was needlessly ripped off by the moronic knuckle draggers of the kwtd especially with all their lying, obfuscating and perjuring statements and actions and others who condoned the coverup as in the fdle and most disgusting state attorney.

    no matter how egregious the actions were in the ducks case if a company can receive $8 million on a case of being illegally put out of business then I ask ‘what is a mans life worth’ illegally taken?
    if the family feels poorly about any moneys then perhaps they donate the results to building a homeless shelter or other good deed and have the full satisfaction of completing the task at hand in bringing ‘ALL’ the ‘perps’ to a deserving justice.

    1. Not sure about that, Wankajm. I think until the City Commission approves the settlement, there is no settlement, and the case is still pending, and it remains pending until it is approved by the City Commission and the US District Court signs off on the settlement and enters and order to that effect. I hope the City Commission discusses and decides on the settlement in plain view, but not sure they have to do that. What if they reject the settlement? That would be interesting.

      1. sloan please.. there is not a bat’s crapper in hell that the city will refuse to settle. its insurance money to boot. the city has sighed a big relief to be let off this hook sooooooooo damn easily. indeed there be dancing in the isles not only from the commission but especially in the cop shop.
        the only ‘in plain view’ you will get is on the disk when it becomes public record the minute the city votes ‘settlement’ and i’ll give you 100 to 1 odds its unanimous.
        sorry to say but the family screwed the pooch on this by settling. I can understand their want to put it behind and i do not mean for this to be harsh but apparently they don’t understand they have inadvertently in spite of themselves indirectly joined in the cover up. I do from my heart wish them well.
        btw the special commission meeting is officially legal requiring a stenographer and video/audio taped since it is an official meeting even though done in camera. ie private setting.

  4. I don’t blame Joshua Eimers for settling. He’s spent a year of his life trying to get at the truth – and he did. Maybe not every little detail, but he proved that the City of Key West and their police are corrupt. Why should he spend any more of his life ‘investigating’? There are other government agencies paid well to do that, and public pressure, if they really care, will get that done.

    1. He spent a year of his life trying to get the truth? He has proved nothing. If he has proved Key West and their police department are corrupt, why are they still their? Other government agencies don’t care. Donnie Lee will stil be chief, 12 Liars will still be on the street, and the homeless will still be in danger.

  5. they say everyone has their price, and Joshua just had his met. I wonder what it feels like to actually put a monetary value on ones father?

    and then to shake the hand of someone so thoroughly disengaged from the legalized slaughter of his father under the auspice of his knuckle dragging jackboots, and even thank him when he cannot even stammer out an apology, no matter how insincere, displays a lack of character the nadir of which I have never seen.

    this case was a slam dunk in terms of fact; perhaps not for a judge and/or jury, for their corruption is legion in police cases, but just the exposition alone should have provided sufficient motivation for the Eimers family to proceed regardless of the legal outcome. he gave up on his father, his memory, his legacy, and perhaps most regrettably, himself. you can’t even fight for your own, how do you expect anyone else to. expect this case, and all involved, to simply fade away and go about their murderous business.

    I wonder where he will choose to buy his vacation home? might I recommend Charlevoix? it is beautiful in the summertime.

  6. During closing citizens comments this coming Tuesday night in Old City Hall is when anyone in Key West can tell the mayor and city commissioners and the city manager and city attorney and KWPD to their faces how you feel feel about the Charles Eimers case. Citizen comments are televised on the city’s TV channel, and are saved with the video of each city commission meeting. So far, I think I’m the only person who called out the mayor and city commissioners at a city commission meeting about the Charles Eimers case. I did it several times.

    I said all along that I didn’t feel is was a good idea for the Eimers children to seek money damages in the lawsuit, and Kurt Wagner (kwwoodworks), you suggested they pledge any damages they might receive to charities. When the city’s insurer offered the policy limits, essentially, that was a game changer. It was an admission by the insurer that it didn’t agree with the mayor, city commissioner, city attorney, city manager, KWPD, FDLE, State Attorney Vogel and her fake ran jury. That’s not going to change, no matter how much that confederacy puts on the settlement.

    If real justice is to be had, the Feds will have to get involved and prosecute the cops for what happened on South Beach, and for the ensuing cover up, evidence tampering and perjury. In that endeavor, the Feds also should prosecute FDLE officials involved, and State Attorney Vogel, and her prosecutors Val Winter and Mark Wilson, for intentionally steering the grand jury to return a no bill.

    I hope John Donnelly’s predictions in that regard come true, but I am not holding my breath. The karma in all of that might be interesting. What do I know? The mayor and city commissioners might tell the insurance carrier the city declines the settlement, grind the plaintiffs into dust. That’s happened before.

  7. I find it very strange that the city of Key Weird only carries $1M in liability insurance. I ran my own remodeling business for many years and was required to carry $2M in liability. I bid on and won a job for the state of Illinois to redo 24 bathrooms in a state run facility. I had to up my liability insurance to $10M to keep the job. At the time I had only six full time employees and three part time. How can a city the size and number of employees only carry $1M? If a tourist was hit by and run over by and crippled or killed by a city owned vehicle you can bet the lawsuit would be more than $1M.

    Some possible reasons: 1) The city of Key Weird is too cheap to pay for a better policy. 2) After the $8M paid to the duck company they use the $1m as an excuse to stop others from high dollar lawsuits. 3) Maybe the insurance company took into consideration past lawsuits, the past and current actions of the city commissioners and the KWPD and refuses to insure the city for more. 4) Maybe the city commission is just too stupid to protect the taxpayers from high dollar payouts. 5) Maybe the commission just doesn’t care

    Kurt Wagner
    St. Thomas, USVI

    1. I agree, Kurt, $1,000,000 liability coverage is ridiculous, and shows just how much the city really cares. Understand, though, that the city’s reserves and other assets can be “garnished” by a successful plaintiff in a damage suit. The $8,000,000 paid to settle the Duck Tours case came out of the city’s reserve fund.

      What has happened here is the city’s insurance carrier and its defense lawyers have tried and convicted the city and its police and city and the city attorney and the city manager and the mayor and city commissioners by settling with the Eimers family subject to the city commission approving the settlement.

      Saying it another way, the insurance company and its defense lawyers believe the cops killed Charles Eimers, despite the mayor and the city commissioners and the city attorney and the city manager backing police chief Donie Lee and his cops all the way.

      I told a friend tonight that, if I had been the city attorney, after the blue paper first broke the story, I would have sat down with the mayor and the six city commissioners one at a time (to avoid a sunshine law violation), in private, and told each of them to go open with this case, apologize to the Eimers family, and offer them a settlement pronto, and clean up their police department. Otherwise, I quit. I can’t work for people who would not do that.

      Someone told me tonight that the mayor and city commissioners know the cops screwed up, but are not saying it publicly. Not true, I said. The mayor and commissioners actually believe the cops did nothing wrong, and Donie Lee actually believes that, too. This person said he hoped that is not true. i said it is true, and the city attorney believes it, and the karma they have created for themselves and the city is awful. This person said, $900,000 is awful. I said, $900,000 is not the karma. The karma is something else.

      I also explained what happens when a plaintiff offers to settle a case for the policy limits, and if the liability insurance carrier and its defense lawyers don’t settle, and, say, a $5,000,000 verdict is returned by a jury, then the defendant can sue its insurance carrier and its insurance defense lawyers for the $4,000,000 over the $1,000,000 policy limits. I said, I bet the conch farm the plaintiff lawyers made a policy limits demand in the Eimers case, which provoked the $900,000 settlement offer from the insurance carrier.

      After the insurance carrier and its lawyers became intimately acquainted with the Eimers case, I think maybe they decided the city and its police officers posed a greater threat to the insurance carrier and its lawyers, than did the Eimers plaintiffs and their lawyers.

      Wouldn’t surprise me if the insurance carrier tells the city to find another insurance company. What insurance company in its right mind would provide liability coverage for the city, knowing the Eimers plaintiffs’ star gestapo witness, police officer Gary Lee Lovette, only got 5 days suspension and then went back to work roaming the streets of Key West?

      I think the discussion of the $900,000 settlement between the city attorney and the mayor and city commissioners next Tuesday night will be behind closed doors, and I think the actual vote on whether or not to accept the settlement will be in public, and citizens will be able to sign up to speak to that agenda item before the vote.

      I wonder how many people in Key West, who are upset about what city police did to Charles Eimers, will be there and will speak next Tuesday night? That, my friend, will tell me how many people in Key West really are upset about what the police did to Charles Eimers.

      1. sloan grandstanding in front of a microphone at this late stage after the finish/settlement of this case is irrelevant and meaningless. beating a dead horse into further submission is an exercise in futility.

        1. I disagree wankajm. It’s not grandstanding, it’s speaking your mind to the “elite” that run this city. Have you spoken at commission meetings about Eimers? How about jininkeywest? How about fred detorez? How about Halloween? How about JP of the Keys? How about keysmiata? How about keysbum? I sure don’t recall any of you speaking up at a commission meeting. No one in Key West except Sloan Bashinsky has a pair.

          1. Oops, I forgot Arnaud and Naja. They don’t need to speak at commission meetings as they have said more than their share by publishing The Blue Paper. KUDO’s to the Girard’s!!!!!

          2. kccwoodworks in answer to your question I have not spoken publicly before the city commission on mr eimers behalf mainly due to the fact I am for the most part housebound with end stage copd on o2 24/7 however my opinion on this subject is known and I felt very sensitive to mr eimers plight being piled on face down in that sand since I sure as hell know what suffocation is all about.
            I have thru the years on many and i do mean many occasions too numerous to count spoke before a number of various city commissions on some high profile subjects.
            shyness is not one of my attributes.
            nevertheless in my humble opinion the settlement closes the issue at hand….unfortunately to the detriment of the health and welfare of our island at this time.

        2. Very sorry to hear of your medical problem, Wankajm, but grandstanding? Amazing. kcwoodworks (Kurt), you are right, I was the only person who had the balls to take the mayor and city commissioners and city attorney and city manager and police chief on in a city commission meeting over the Eimers case, and I did it several times. And the angels who boss me around will have my balls if I am not there Tuesday night with a few remarks. It’s my fun job to prosecute those defendants in a court they perhaps heard of in Sunday school and/or church, but apparently they don’t think it applies to them. Furthermore, that prosecution applies to anyone who voted for any of the seven elected officials, who did not come before them in a city commission meeting and call them out for how they were dealing with the Eimers case. That 100 or so people who attended the candlelight memorial for Charles Eimers, where have they been in city commission meetings? Those 100 or so people who later marched against police brutality because of the Eimers case, where have they been in city commission meetings? Where have been the people who write into the blue paper, who are upset about the Eimers case. Maybe, Wankajm, the memorial and the march and writing into the blue paper were grandstanding?

          1. sloan perhaps I was a bit too abrupt in print and of that I apologize to you and to clarify I was trying to speak generally and perhaps misused the word grandstanding….my point was after the settlement it was then too late since all the ‘momentum’ or shall we say ‘fluid’ of the occasion has come to a screeching end and my use of words may have reflected my general mindset of disappointment at the settlement and of this I am sorry.
            since we will now never know the full scope of the corruption of cover up and the exact detail of who and why in this world mr eimer’s entire face was held down into the sand for such a length of time as to asphyxiate him…and make no mistake that is exactly what happened and what the 2 videos show to my ‘lying eyes’ official reports and statements not withstanding.
            no the memorial and march was quite proper in the time line and hats off to you and all [with exception of the 2 drunken aggressive punks with no clue looking for a problem in the march video] who participated.
            again slone sorry for my lack of judgment on my choice of verbiage. best of cheers.

    2. kccwoodworks fyi the $8M paid out in settlement to the ducks came not from any insurance company. illegal acts are not covered by any insurance carrier I ever heard of and the ducks finding of facts and of law was totally upheld right up thru the 3rd dca and for that matter the florida supreme court.
      no the $8M came directly from the city’s own reserve funds which at that time in march 2009 was in the area of $35M. I would assume it is about the same today if not a bit more. checking their 2014 cafr [comprehensive annual financial report] would show the accurate current reserves. kw if anything is quite a wealthy municipality.

      1. Wankjam, the proposed $900,000 Eimers settlement is in a civil case, not a criminal case. Wasn’t the Ducks case was a civil case, not a criminal case? I don’t recall any city officials being criminal prosecuted in that case. Where what you are saying might get really interesting is if the US Department of Justice criminally prosecutes the various perps in the Eimers case. I doubt there will be any insurance defense lawyers defending those defendants.

        1. sloan if I’m understanding you? you think the eimers case settlement has to do with a criminal proceeding?
          I understand the 900k to be a civil proceeding that is being settled not criminal.

          for clarity sake as to the ducks case the principal ceo was prosecuted by the city criminally. that came about due to the city amending their vehicle for hire ordinance then criminalizing the amendment and then using that amended version against the ceo of the ducks of which after a 2 year prosecution and many offers of plea bargains all rejected by the ducks a trial jury within 5 minutes found the principle of the ducks not guilty on all 7 counts and counts of which besides the monetary fines subjected that person to 420 days of jail. this was 1996 thru 1998 when the criminal trial was finalized and the ducks civil case then resumed to conclusion in findings of law and fact in 2005 and final damages in 2009.

          as to the u.s. doj my thought is they will simply ignore the eimers case and there will be nothing but stale air coming from that direction. just take a look at the dc of today…hell of the past 15 years….eimers fits the agenda at militarizing the police of the nation. remember ‘OBEY’ as the jackboot steps on our constitution and bill of rights. yep sure fits the national agenda!

          if only the clock could be turned back.

          1. Wankajm, the Ducks case was a civil anti-trust case filed in state court by Ducks against the city and Historic Tours of America, AFTER Ducks won the criminal case. Winning the criminal case set the stage for the anti-trust lawsuit, and was the proof the city and HTA (Ed Swift) had violated the antitrust laws.

            The Eimers case was a civil rights civil case for money damages filed in federal court. It was not a criminal civil rights case

            I have written in comments to blue paper articles and at goodmorningkeywest.com that I am not holding my breath the feds will do a criminal investigation/prosecution in the Eimers case.

            In your other comment re my granstanding, to which I am unable to respond there because there is no reply button under yours, my sense is you do not understand, or believe, a criminal prosecution already is in full swing in a court the mayor and city commissioners and cops learned about in Sunday school and church, and that is what I am involved in, and that is why I will be there Tuesday night to speak. The civil settlement in federal court is independent of that prosecution.

            I imagine someone has advised Mayor Cates and Commissioner Yaniz, if they run for mayor next year, they will hear plenty about them being accomplices to the murder of Charles Eimers, before the fact, by egging their police to make homeless people’s lives miserable, and after the fact, by backing those cops and their police chief and their perjuries and cover ups and evidence tamperings and destroyings all the way. I also imagine Cates and Yaniz paid that advice no heed. It is not in them to admit their city could do something so heinous.

            And, I don’t imagine, it is in the voters of Key West to admit it, either. Including people who don’t like what happened to Eimers. So, right, they are being prosecuted, too, in that court they don’t want to think has anything to do with them.

            What I’m saying, Wankajm, the case ain’t over, the fat lady hasn’t come close to singing yet. I’m talking about the prosecution and sentencing and time served in that other court and prison, not the civil case that got settled in federal court.

          2. sloan the ducks case was filed before criminal charges were leveled against the ceo of the company. these criminal charges came about in 1996 whereas the anti-trust and violation of the u.s. constitution under the commerce clause was filed in 1995. the criminal case the city brought against the duck’s ceo did not set the stage for the civil case since the civil case had already been filed. granted it helped the civil case in its appearance but the civil case was moving along on its own speed based on the violations of the anti-trust laws and especially on the violation of the u.s. constitution of which came the original $13M dollar verdict in 2005. the franchise between the city and hta was the smoking gun alone and not the criminal charge. in fact the criminal charge was irrelevant to both counts in the civil case. the trial simply showed the exceptional bad behavior on behalf of the defendants and especially that of the city of its day. but I digress…
            in reading your 5:18 pm reply it seems you are talking of the religious domain as to a criminal trial etc. and I tend to now understand your intent.
            as to replying to my previous 10:44 am without the reply link I think you can use your previous 9:25 am reply link above it to segment into the proper time sequence with this wordpress program as I am doing with your missing link here on your 5:18 pm posting by using my 11:15 am post. a bit convoluted but I think it will work. cheers.

  8. Key West has showed the world how corrupt they are. Nothing short of the FBI or U S courts will change anything. Very hard to prove evidence if it is destroyed. The Eimers family has done about all they can do as to proving criminal actions of the KWPD. What more does it take ? Lovette’s recording tells all that is needed not only to fire the thug and put him in prison. They don’t seem to care about perjury of officers. Sadly any money paid out does not hurt the KWPD or it’s officers. I would hope they went after about 10 million and put the city in debt for the balance. What kind of stupid city only has a 1 mil limit ? Time to add a line on them cop cars “Protecting & Serving Paradise” “And killing tourists”.
    Time to clean up Key West. Fire the chief and Lovette. Do you have any idea what you have lost in tourist dollars ? Any arrest made by Lovette could easily be thrown out of court.

  9. The government culture is thinking the public will forget about this travesty of justice . I surely will not forget.

    I hope the readers will not forget either and vote all of the elected officials that had a hand in this out

  10. The truth was exposed effectively by Key West the Newspaper with the very well compensated assistance of the Horan law firm. It has been over a year of hell for Charles Eimer’s family. We have seen how corrupt “the machine” is, and there is no guarantee that damages exceeding or even reaching the insurer’s offer would occur, no matter how overwhelming the evidence against the KWPD. Quit beating on Joshua. Charles would be happy that his sacrifice at least somewhat improved his family’s finances. If y’all care about justice or revenge, then keep pushing on the investigation of City, FDLE, and State Attorney wrong-doing. it’s not Joshua’s job. He wanted to know the truth and now he does. The little details hardly matter. Charles and his family have done a great service to every resident of and visitor to Key West, even if nobody culpable is punished. KW does not need another similar incident anytime soon and they know it. Quit beating on Joshua. Let him go in peace, with heartfelt thanks. Kudos to The Blue Paper for exposing what the other media whitewashed.

  11. Lies…lies….lies..and more lies by the liars. It all started in the county attorniey’s office some years ago. In fact it started in the same office that represents the Community Review Board. I’m wondering: How much will the next lawsuit cost?

    City commissioner Yaniz and Rossi’s public position on the Eimer;s case is reprehensible. Anyone can tell they are on the take. And here we thought there was going to be an end to Bubba=ism in Key West. Now, it is worse than ever! Whatever happened to real justice? The judicial system in Key West is a JOKE! One must pay to play. Disgusting is the proper description.

    What Key West needs is a couple more drunk and impaired judges, er, political puppets sitting on the bench. Perhaps, ex-Judge Slaton’s campaign manager, attorney Robert Cintron, can provide a few more losers, so his cronies can manipulate the judicial system and their agenda even further!

    1. Thanks, wankjam, two threads.

      Do you know the disposition of the criminal prosecution related to Duck Tours?

      The prosecution I am taking about in the Eimers case is not in the religious domain, although I can appreciate youe using that term. The religious domain is churches and religions. The domain in which that prosecution is taking place is God’s domain, which religions and churches have tried to hijack as their domain, which might could be likened to a molecule trying to hijack, hmmm, the Milky Way? Naw, that’s too generous. It can be likened to a molecule trying to hijack the Universe, including the parts of which humans know nothing, What humans know is the molecule, or maybe a few electrons, protons and neutrons of the molecule 🙂

  12. Halloween, I just wanted to state that the Horans are definitely a part of “the machine” in KW, always have been. I’m not here to give an opinion as to their role in all this, I’m not qualified to do so, but I just throw that out. Personally speaking, putting a price on something like this seems perverse to me, a perversion much in harmony with the perverse society we live in.

  13. sloan yes in answer to your question the disposition was a finding of not guilty on all 7 counts by the jury after 5 minutes of deliberation which concluded a 3 day trial. the criminal charges were an affront to lady justice as the facts of the matter were made transparent by the ducks whereas the city of its day had amended the vehicle for hire law so as it would fit the ducks and criminalized the amendment and then used the newly criminalized vehicle for hire ordinance to prosecute the ceo of the ducks. a complete sham! fwiw the jury also seen it as such I would assume.

    initially in 1995 the city took the official posture of demanding the ducks close down because they were in violation of the hta sightseeing franchise. ergo the anti-trust and violation of the constitution law suit was filed based on the city’s position….much latter in 1996 the city took the posture that in addition the ducks were in violation of the vehicle for hire ordinance after they created the criminalized amendment and applied it to the ducks thereby opening up another legal front against the ducks and in this instant the ceo of the company personally. call it dirty legal pool but whatever you wish to call it the fact is it didn’t wash with the jury and the ceo was found not guilty at the trial in 1998. I recall the ceo saying at the time “not guilty of the heinous crime of being in business in my own country” was his quote.
    that is the outcome of the criminal charges falsely leveled at him in 1996. thereafter in 1998 the civil case filed in 1995 based on the city’s position that the ducks were in violation of the hta sightseeing franchise resumed in earnest. there is your early history of the ducks case.
    best of cheers. wjm

    1. thanks, Wankajm, I told someone a little while ago they should charge admission for tonight’s entertainment in Old City Hall: Eimers settlement, new homeless shelter, affordable housing, et. al.

    2. wankajm, Naja and Arnaud, others …

      Todd German, the first Chairman of Key West Citizen’s (Police) Review Board, told me before last night’s commission meeting, if the settlement was approved by the city commission, what went on in the closed session with the city attorney could be obtained by a public record’s request. Perhaps, though, not until after the US District Court signs off on the settlement.

      However, the Eimers case was not on last night’s city commission meeting agenda. It was announced that the commission will meet with the city attorney about the case in closed session just before the next city commission meeting. I ass-u-me the vote then will be taken in plain view in the commission meeting, and citizens will be able to comment before the vote is taken? Or perhaps, the vote will be put off to the next following city commission meeting? And perhaps it will be a consent agenda item, for which a citizen will have to sign up to speak to get it off the consent agenda where it could sail quietly into the night?

      I had thought all day yesterday that I would tell Mayor Cates and the city commissioners last night, now that their own liability insurance carrier had decided their police had killed Charles Eimers and, for that reason, had settled the case to avoid spending even more money defending the city in a case that could not be won, would the mayor and commissioners now apologize to the Charles Eimers children for what their city police did to Charles Eimers? Alas, there never seemed a good time to say that last night, with all the various hot homeless shelter and affordable housing items on agenda.. Maybe I should have said it anyway, but there were other important matters, in which I had been involved for a lot longer than I had been involved in the Charles Eimers case.

      Mayor Cates did not deliver his annual state of the city address/report last night, which was scheduled on the city agenda. He looked like he was sick. After the meeting, someone told me Mayor Cates has laryngitis and that’s why he did not make the state of the city report. It was billed as long, 17 pages I think I heard. This morning, it occurred to me that maybe Mayor Cates needs to rewrite his address to reflect the true state of the city. Maybe laryngitis is a preview of coming attractions, if he does not do that. And if he does not apologize to the Eimers family, as mayor, on behalf of the entire city.

  14. sloan as I had said earlier in our exchanges a disk of the special session or closed session can be had after the case is finalized showing the commission deliberations and the vote. the vote is taken in special session not publicly and will most likely show up in the ‘consent agenda’ at the city commission meeting for bulk vote unless removed for discussion by a city commissioner which I doubt. the city attorney will give a brief critique on the subject only. I’m presuming this will be the path of least resistance that will be taken.
    at that city commission meeting you will have ample room to state your position.
    best wjm

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