{"id":428771,"date":"2026-01-25T10:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T10:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/428771\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T10:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T10:07:10","slug":"renee-goods-family-lawyers-represented-george-floyds-family-they-face-more-hurdles-this-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/428771\/","title":{"rendered":"Renee Good\u2019s family lawyers represented George Floyd\u2019s family. They face more hurdles this time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n The body of Renee Good had not yet been turned over to her family when the Trump administration announced<\/a> her fatal shooting by an ICE agent was in response to \u201can act of domestic terrorism.\u201d Later, sources told CNN the Justice Department stopped investigating the agent<\/a> and federal authorities refused<\/a> to share information<\/a> with local investigators.\n <\/p>\n

\n Good\u2019s family, including her partner, Becca, decided to get answers on their own. They hired the legal team connected to another case of deadly force by law enforcement in Minneapolis \u2013 the 2020 death of George Floyd<\/a> under the knee of police officer Derek Chauvin.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe community is not receiving transparency about this case elsewhere, so our team will provide that to the country,\u201d said<\/a> the law firm of Romanucci & Blandin, the same lawyers who represented Floyd\u2019s family in a civil lawsuit.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Floyd case resulted in a $27 million payout<\/a> by the city of Minneapolis, which the firm said was the largest<\/a> pretrial settlement of a wrongful death civil rights case.\n <\/p>\n

\n This month the attorneys sent letters to federal agencies connected to Good\u2019s shooting<\/a>, saying they\u202f\u201canticipate bringing legal action\u201d over allegations including excessive force and negligence and demanding evidence be preserved.\u202fOne of those letters was sent to the home of\u202fJonathan Ross<\/a>, the ICE agent who\u202ffired the fatal shots<\/a> January 7 in Minneapolis.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe need to know based on the totality of circumstances \u2013 not only looking at the video, but also looking at the intent that was there, looking at reasonable police practices,\u201d family attorney Antonio Romanucci told CNN\u2019s Erin Burnett<\/a> last week.\n <\/p>\n

\n Taking on the city of Minneapolis in the George Floyd case was challenging, but Romanucci acknowledges this case \u2013 suing the United States government for the conduct of an immigration officer \u2013 is harder.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cLegal action against the federal government is even more complex,\u201d Romanucci said<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n For most of the country\u2019s history, suing the United States for harm caused by a government employee was impossible<\/a>. Until 1946, most citizens seeking compensation for a negligent or wrongful act by a civil servant could get it only through a literal act of Congress, case by case.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAnd Congress hated it because people who had these claims would just constantly contact their congressman to say, \u2018How\u2019s my claim going?\u2019\u201d said Paul Figley, professor emeritus at the American University Washington College of Law, an expert on tort cases against the government.\n <\/p>\n

\n The result was Federal Tort Claims Act<\/a> \u2013 known as the FTCA \u2013 a landmark moment for victims\u2019 rights.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe Federal Tort Claims Act provides a vehicle for people to use when they\u2019ve been injured by the government,\u201d Figley said.\n <\/p>\n

\n But it is a vehicle on a very bumpy road, as the law created a number of special conditions that have to be met before a person can even file a lawsuit. A plaintiff first must file a claim<\/a> with the government asking for the opportunity to sit down and negotiate a deal out of court. That process can take up to six months.\n <\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s a delay not only in getting the case to a judge but also in the critical process of discovery \u2013 the opportunity to demand evidence from the government.\n <\/p>\n

\n In their letter to the government agencies, the Good family\u2019s attorneys indicated their interest in a long list of evidence, including items and data from the vehicle Good was driving, records of Ross\u2019 injuries after the shooting and any statements he made about use of force and protesters.\n <\/p>\n

\n The lead attorney says evidence \u2013 including video \u2013 that shows the full context of the shooting will be critical to the case.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cEven if that law enforcement officer was in front of the vehicle, did he place himself there?\u201d Romanucci asked in an interview with the Minnesota Star Tribune<\/a> this month. \u201cAnd if he did, that is considered officer-related jeopardy.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n The Trump administration has made it clear throughout the aftermath of Good\u2019s shooting that it has little interest in a broad investigation of the officer\u2019s actions. Vice President JD Vance said<\/a> this month at a White House news conference Ross is \u201cprotected by absolute immunity\u201d from criminal prosecution, a claim<\/a> disputed by many legal experts.\n <\/p>\n

\n It is not clear if Vance was suggesting Ross would also be immune from civil lawsuits, but it is a signal that the administration is unlikely to make a high-dollar deal with Good\u2019s family during the pre-lawsuit claims process, especially since that deal would have to be approved at top levels of the Justice Department.\n <\/p>\n

\n If the Good family can\u2019t make a deal with the administration during the claims process, the next step is filing a lawsuit. But even then, the federal government gets special protection.\n <\/p>\n

\n Under the FTCA, a tort lawsuit against the US has to be filed in federal court, even when an officer is accused of violating state law. And there is no right to a jury trial. In contrast to the George Floyd civil lawsuit against Minneapolis \u2013 a federal case that would have been decided by a jury \u2013 everything in a tort lawsuit against the federal government, from guilt or innocence to the amount of a potential reward, would be decided by a federal judge.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAny defense that is available under state law to a private person defendant is available<\/a> to the United States in an FTCA suit,\u201d Figley said.\n <\/p>\n

\n In the Good shooting, that would include defense assertions \u2013 already made in public statements by administration officials \u2013 that Ross reasonably thought his life was in danger<\/a> when he fired his gun and that the shooting was justified<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n While federal law makes Ross immune from being directly sued for assault or wrongful death in Good\u2019s shooting, he could be named as a defendant \u2013 and end up in front of a jury \u2013 in a suit accusing him of denying Good\u2019s civil rights. But Figley says those cases \u2013 known as Bivens suits after the Supreme Court decision<\/a> that first made them possible \u2013 are even harder to win<\/a> and rarely worth the trouble for victims.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cMost officers don\u2019t have enough money to make it worthwhile,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\"Monica<\/p>\n

\n The George Floyd civil case<\/a> brought by the same legal team cited a federal law<\/a> that allows state employees to be sued for civil rights violations \u201cunder color of law.\u201d That act \u2013 passed<\/a> in the wake of a wave of terror by government workers affiliated with racist groups like the Ku Klux Klan \u2013 does not apply to federal employees and could not be used in a case against Ross.\n <\/p>\n

\n With recent<\/a> rulings<\/a> from the Supreme Court finding that immigration officers have extensive immunity from lawsuits \u2013 and the Trump administration\u2019s inversion of the initial investigation of the shooting into an investigation of Good herself<\/a> \u2013 Romanucci recognizes an uphill fight ahead but says the family\u2019s main goal is to get the full story of her death.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cPeople in Minneapolis and across this country truly, truly care about what happened to Renee Good on January 7, 2026,\u201d and are committed to understanding how she could have been killed, Romanucci said<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The body of Renee Good had not yet been turned over to her family when the Trump administration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-428771","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}