Delaware Settles Vaughn Prison Uprising Suit by Slain Lieutenant's Family and Five Hostage Officers
After trial: The state paid $7.55 million in total, divided among 11 claimants without a public breakdown. Delaware denied wrongdoing and said the payment also resolved workers' compensation and other disputed claims.
Won by Jacobs & Crumplar and The Neuberger Firm.
Delaware agreed in December 2017 to pay $7.55 million to settle a federal suit over the February 2017 uprising at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna, where Lt. Steven Floyd was killed and other officers were held hostage. The plaintiffs said years of understaffing and forced overtime left the prison exposed. The money was divided among 11 claimants and the split was not made public, so the figure is an aggregate. The state denied wrongdoing.
What happened
On February 1, 2017, inmates in Building C of the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna, Delaware, took correctional officers hostage in an uprising that lasted about 18 hours. Lt. Steven Floyd, a 16-year veteran of the Department of Correction, was beaten to death. Other officers were held hostage and beaten before state police retook the building.
On April 18, 2017, Floyd's family and five surviving officers sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware in Wilmington. The officers were Winslow Smith, Joshua Wilkinson, Owen Hammond, Matthew McCall and Justin Tuxward, and the estate was represented by a personal representative. Court filings list Thomas C. Crumplar and Raeann Warner of Jacobs & Crumplar as attorneys for the plaintiffs, working with Thomas S. Neuberger and Stephen J. Neuberger of the Neuberger Firm.
The complaint named former governors Ruth Ann Minner and Jack Markell, former corrections and budget officials, and the Department of Correction. Its theory was that, over roughly 16 years, successive administrations kept the prisons short of staff to save money and relied on mandatory overtime, with officers working 16-hour shifts. It said Minner's administration eliminated vacant positions in the early 2000s and that both administrations ignored a 2004 task force report urging more hiring. It also pointed to the lack of security cameras in Building C, a concern raised as early as 2005.
In October 2017 a grand jury indicted 18 inmates, 16 of them on murder charges in Floyd's death.
The case did not go to trial. On December 15, 2017, the state announced it would pay $7.55 million to resolve the claims. There were 11 claimants in all: Floyd's widow and children and six Department of Correction employees. The plaintiffs dismissed their claims against all defendants by stipulation, with each side bearing its own fees. The settlement was not itemized, so no individual share is public. The state said the claims lacked legal merit and that it settled to avoid the burden and expense of protracted litigation. It also said the payment resolved workers' compensation and other disputed claims.
In a statement the plaintiffs thanked the public, the members of the COAD union, Delaware and Maryland state troopers, other law enforcement officers on the scene, first responders and the media for their support.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Floyd v. Department of Correction, No. 1:17-cv-00431-RGA (D. Del.), docket, 2017
- 2.Cape Gazette, 'Smyrna prison siege blamed on Minner, Markell', 2017·Archived copy
- 3.WHYY, 'Delaware settles prison riot lawsuit for $7.5 million', Dec. 15, 2017·Archived copy
- 4.Prison Legal News, 'Deadly Prison Riot in Delaware', Apr. 2, 2018·Archived copy
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