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Lawsuit over police raid settled for $350,000 moments before jury’s verdict

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By Denise G. Callahan, Staff Writer Updated 9:35 PM Friday, January 27, 2012

CINCINNATI — Moments before a federal jury announced it would award a Hamilton Twp. family and friends $44,000 for a 2007 unconstitutional police raid, the two sides settled the case for $350,000.

The U.S. District Court jury considered the case for a dozen hours Thursday and Friday and decided the township and its police force violated citizen’s rights. Mary and Edward Pritchard’s attorney Konrad Kircher said it was just moments before the jury announced it had reached a verdict Friday night that the two sides agreed to the $350,000 settlement.

“We were literally at the court informing the bailiff we had a settlement when the bailiff said the jury had a verdict,” he said. “Our clients get more out of the settlement than the verdict.”

The Pritchards and a couple party-goers - Zachary Christman and Kevin Clark - filed a lawsuit because of the raid. The suit accused former Hamilton Twp. Police Lt. Jeff Braley - the lead detective in the Ryan Widmer murder case - former Police Chief Frank Richardson, Lt. Phil Johnson, former Officer Roger Gilbert and his wife, Gail, of staging an unconstitutional raid on their home. The township was also pulled into the case.

Kircher said the jury agreed with every claim of harm and every claim for punitive damages.

“The Pritchards feel vindicated and now they can go out in the community again and everyone will know they were mishandled and they were treated poorly and the rumors will stop,” Kircher said.

Kircher said the township’s insurance will cover the claim. Township attorneys and officials could not be reached for comment Friday night.

The crux of the case that Braley got a tip there might be underage drinking at the Pritchards’ party, so he arranged a sting operation. Court records show Braley drove by the party several times and didn’t see anything actionable until around 11:45 p.m. on his final check of the home. He reported seeing four individuals on the side of the home, and one appeared to be loud and intoxicated.

A decision was made to have Gilbert’s wife call in a noise complaint from her home in another county, since no Pritchard neighbors had complained.

The police converged on the party and arrested Christman, who ran when the police arrived, and Clark who was filming the action on his cellphone. Police asked him to stop, which he did, but opened his phone again when he received a text message.

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4525 or dcallahan@coxohio.com.

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