Lawyers for officer awarded nearly $20 million offered to settle case in April for $850,000

[Sherman A1]

CLAYTON — St. Louis County Police Sgt. Keith Wildhaber offered to settle his discrimination lawsuit for $850,000 plus a promotion to lieutenant six months before a jury awarded him nearly $20 million, the Post-Dispatch has learned.

On Wednesday, County Counselor Beth Orwick said that the Board of Police Commissioners had refused to settle the case, but did not indicate the amount that had been discussed.

Reached on Thursday, the board’s former chairman, Roland Corvington, declined to comment. The other four members of the police board, Laurie Westfall, Lawrence Wooten, Mark Gaertner and Art Johnson, did not respond to calls and texts from a reporter.

Wildhaber’s attorneys at the Riggan Law Firm sent the terms of the settlement to former St. Louis County Counselor Peter Krane and Assistant County Counselor Mike Hughes on April 5, 2019, according to sources familiar with the case.

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/lawyers-for-officer-awarded-nearly-million-offered-to-settle-case/article_a1b6f09c-1c80-526d-ba2a-f1d306bf4dbd.html#tracking-source=home-top-story

[uponit7771]

1. Good !!! When are people going to get tired of these cities paying out for unprofessional PDs!?

[NoMoreRepugs]

2. Outstanding!! Love it when hate and discrimination are

PUNISHED.

[Sherman A1]

3. Hopefully a few heads will roll

and the entire police board will be replaced along with a few of the upper echelon of the Police Department.

[StarfishSaver]

4. It's always a calculated risk to turn down a settlement offer as cases can go either way. But dayum!

[MagickMuffin]

5. Sue the Law Enforcers unions and individuals NOT the cities or counties

Suing the cities or counties will eventually bankrupt those municipalities. When that happens we all pay.

The cities will not have the funding to operate. Fort Worth now makes us pay going to our beloved Botanical Gardens. SAD

We all pay for these enforcers wrong-doings.

So, we should be suing the unions who support these rogue enforcers agendas.

[Midnight Writer]

6. This is a case of MANAGEMENT misconduct.

Union officers are mandated by law to represent members. You can (as I was) be sued for not representing the people who pay you to do just that.

Should we also sue defense attorneys for representing the accused?

[Sherman A1]

9. How does that work when it was management that created this issue?

Not the Union or the members of that Union.

[dware]

7. They should have accepted his offer of settlement.

Can't figure out what they were thinking, or not thinking.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

8. maybe they should've settled AND changed the Board ...

"Many times, the best outcome is a settlement but there are many reasons that cases
are not settled," Orwick said. "In this case the Board of Police Commissioners
decided not to settle."

Councilwoman Rochelle Walton Gray, D-4th District, said she did not think the
County Council had been made aware of the settlement offer.

"It would have saved us a lot of money if they had gone ahead and settled," she
said. "I think that just lends to the indication that we do need to change the
current Board of Police Commissioners."

Wildhaber, a 24-year St. Louis County police veteran, filed the lawsuit in January
2017, claiming a former St. Louis County Police Board member told him to "tone down
your gayness" if he wanted to be promoted.