Steele Family Attorney Discloses Settlement Amount

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Dave O’Brien, attorney for the family of Autumn Steele has announced the monetary settlement to end the wrongful death law suit with the City of Burlington and Officer Jessie Hill.

O’Brien says the family has agreed to a two million dollar settlement.  According to O’Brien there are a number of other issues that need to be ironed out before a complete agreement is in place and further information can be released.  The family is still looking for the details and the body-cam video to be released in the case.  O’Brien says that the family is satisfied that the settlement of two million dollars makes it clear that Officer Jessie Hill acted improperly when he discharged his service weapon fatally wounding Autumn Steele in January of 2015. he says that an insurance company would not agree to a settlement of that size unless they felt there was some liability in the case.

Officer Hill had said he drew his weapon to protect against the family dog when he responded to a domestic dispute.  Hill said he slipped on the ice and accidentally shot the 34 year old Steele.  The family contended that Hill acted improperly in the use of his weapon and his actions caused the death of the mother of two.

According to O’Brien, the City filed for a summary judgement in the case and submitted evidence including the full body-cam video. Then asked the court to seal the records due to the pending litigation on the case.  The court sealed those records, which prompted a court battle for the release of the video and other information related to the case in U.S. District Court in Davenport.  The watchdog group, The Iowa Freedom Of Information Council is continuing its effort to get the sealed records released.  O’Brien says the family feels strong that those records should be made public, so the tax-payers of Burlington can decide for themselves what happened that day.

According to O’Brien, until a final settlement is in place, he does not expect any other information to be made available to the public from his office. he says he cannot estimate when the final agreement will be completed.