Brattleboro Reformer

Town's insurance will cover officers in Woodward suit
By PATRICK ARMSTRONG
Reformer Staff

Wednesday, February 19, 2003 - BRATTLEBORO -- Marshall Holbrook, one of two Brattleboro police officers named in a federal civil suit in the shooting death of Robert "Woody" Woodward, will still be covered in that suit by the town's liability insurance despite his resignation.

Woodward, 37, was fatally shot by Holbrook and Officer Terrance Parker in the All Souls Unitarian-Universalist Church in West Brattleboro on Dec. 2, 2001. Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell in April exonerated the police officers of any wrongdoing after a lengthy investigation that focused largely on technical details of the incident.

But Woodward's family is pursuing a wrongful death civil suit against the town of Brattleboro and the two officers. The suit alleges the town failed to adequately train and supervise Holbrook and Parker. It further charges the two officers with "unconstitutional use of unreasonable force" and negligence in shooting Woodward seven times, including once in the back.

The town, Holbrook and Parker are represented by Attorney William Ellis of Burlington. The firm Ellis belongs to, McNeil, Leddy & Sheahan, was hired by the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, said Steve Jeffrey, executive director of the VLCT.

The town is part of the VLCT's insurance pool, Town Manager Jerry Remillard said, which gives it access to the VLCT's legal defense resources, he added.

For the general liability coverage, the town's 2002-03 contribution to the VLCT was $84,000, said Remillard. This was part of total of $222,636 budgeted for risk management, which also includes worker's compensation, other liability insurance, self insurance, bonds and occupational health insurance.

Holbrook submitted a letter of resignation late last week, according to Remillard. Brattleboro Police Chief John Martin said Holbrook's resignation is effective April 1. Parker and Holbrook are and will continue to be covered by the town's contribution to the VLCT, however.

"They are town employees who were working for the town at the time of the incident," said Remillard.

Jeffrey said the amount the VLCT charges towns is adjusted based on their loss history, and if a town has a bad loss history, their contribution to the general liability might go up.

Jeffrey said he believed that liability coverage for the town was about $2 million, less any legal expenses. If a jury were to award an amount in excess of $2 million, said Jeffrey, then any excess would have to made up by the town. No amount is named in the civil suit.

The VLCT has a loss fund made up of about 60 percent of the contributions by member organizations, said Jeffrey. At the end of a year, any amount left in the fund is sent back to the organizations. However, any organizations that have a lot of legal activity will not get any money sent back to them, he said.

"Obviously, we're incurring significant legal expenses in this case," said Jeffrey, adding that any changes in the town's assessment would not be made until the case is resolved.

Currently, the civil case is still in the deposition phase, and may be until the U.S. Department of Justice decides if Woodward's civil rights were violated. The department opened its investigation in July.

On Aug. 26, a motion to extend the discovery schedule was submitted to U.S. District Court, signed by Ellis, as well as by attorneys Thomas Costello and Joel Faxon of Bridgeport, Conn. Both Costello and Faxon represent the Woodward family.

In the motion, both parties asked for postponement of depositions of the defendants and the disclosure of experts until the Justice Department and the FBI conclude their investigation into the shooting. The basis for delaying the deposition was that Holbrook and Parker did not want to be deposed as long as a criminal investigation was open, according to court documents.

Since then, a federal judge has asked Ellis to determine the status of the Justice Department investigation, which Justice Department spokeswoman Casey Stavropoulos said Jan. 21 was still an open investigation under review by the Civil Rights Division. Stavropoulos was not immediately available for comment Tuesday as to the current status of the investigation.

However, Costello indicated that he expected the court might go forward with the deposition of the two officers even if the investigation is not completed.

If that happens, Holbrook and Parker could still assert their Fifth Amendment rights during the deposition, said Costello. However, Ellis said that a scheduling order issued by the court said that the deposition of the two officers would take place within a certain amount of time after the investigation is concluded, and that he had no indication at this point that this would change.