Houston Police Department
Surveillance video of the Dec. 26, 2021, crash involving an HPD officer.
The City of Houston is requesting a new trial after a federal jury awarded $13 million to the family of a man killed in a 2021 crash with a Houston Police Department officer.
According to several court filings by the city last week, it is arguing that it should be awarded a new trial in the case for several reasons, including that the city was “unfairly surprised” and the damages awarded were “excessive.”
The city’s motion for a new trial comes several weeks after a federal jury awarded $13 million to the family of 75-year-old Charles Payne and ruled that the city “was deliberately indifferent” in adopting an “inadequate” policy that allowed HPD officers to drive recklessly.
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RELATED: Federal jury awards $13 million to family of man killed in crash with Houston police officer
On Dec. 26, 2021, Payne was turning south onto North Shepherd Drive in Houston. According to the lawsuit, Payne was attempting to turn left across the northbound lanes of Shepherd when HPD officer Christopher Cabrera crashed into the side of Payne’s vehicle. Payne died due to injuries sustained during the crash.
Cabrera was originally listed as a defendant in the lawsuit, but was later granted qualified immunity, according to court documents.
In a filing last Friday, the city argues that:
The federal court made erroneous evidentiary rulings that affected the jury’s verdict.
The court erroneously charged the jury
Houston was unfairly surprised
The verdict was against the great weight of the evidence
The damages awarded were excessive
In the filing, the city claimed “the entire case was an ambush.”
“Houston was forced to defend vague, mercurial theories that were evidently developed on the fly, and never disclosed during discovery,” city attorneys argued.
The city also argues that a new trial should be awarded because the court “excluded significant, and directly relevant evidence” about how Payne was allegedly imprisoned in Louisiana in the 1980s and 1990s, and that he allegedly “abandoned his family.”
The city goes on to list all its alleged grievances with how the trial was conducted in its 44-page filing. The city also submitted a separate filing objecting to the plaintiffs’ request for the city to pay its attorney’s fees, arguing that the “plaintiffs waived their right to seek fees.”
Attorneys for Payne’s family did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the city’s motion for a new trial. As of Tuesday, the judge in the case had not made a ruling on the motion, court records show.
Following the jury’s November ruling, the attorneys representing Payne’s family, Ben Crump and Paul Grinke, said in a statement the jury’s ruling recognizes the “truth of what happened to Charles Payne.”
“This verdict cannot erase the overwhelming pain of losing him, but it is an important measure of justice for his family,” the statement reads. “We hope this decision helps strengthen policies to ensure that law enforcement operate their vehicles in a way that keeps the communities they serve safe. We hope that no other family has to experience a tragedy like this.”
The plaintiffs’ attorneys had argued the HPD officer was driving faster than 70 mph in a 35 mph zone and that the crash would likely not have happened if the officer had been driving the speed limit.