Prince George's County Pays Mother of Paralyzed Traffic-Stop Victim in Federal Civil Rights Suit
After trial: The case settled before trial, so there was no verdict and no appeal in the civil action. Strong's separate criminal conviction was appealed.
Won by Murphy Falcon & Murphy.
In March 2023, Prince George's County, Maryland agreed to pay $7.5 million to Rena Ward, the mother of Demonte Ward-Blake, and his estate. Ward-Blake was paralyzed after a county police officer slammed him, handcuffed, onto the pavement during an October 2019 traffic stop. The federal civil rights and wrongful death suit was settled without any admission of wrongdoing by the county.
What happened
On an October evening in 2019, a Prince George's County police officer stopped Demonte Ward-Blake over expired vehicle tags. Ward-Blake was in his mid-twenties. According to the family's lawsuit, the officer, Cpl. Bryant Strong, drew a gun during the stop, and after Ward-Blake had been handcuffed behind his back, slammed him face-first onto the pavement. Ward-Blake was unarmed. Police had said he tried to run.
The fall broke vertebrae in his neck and spine. He underwent surgery in which discs were removed, the spinal cord was decompressed, and plates, rods and screws were placed. He was left paralyzed from the neck down and used a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
He was later shot in an unrelated incident in District Heights and died on August 1, 2021, at 26. His family contended that his paralysis left him unable to survive that shooting, so the injuries from the traffic stop contributed to his death. His mother, Rena Ward, pursued the claims on his behalf and for his estate.
Strong was tried on criminal charges arising from the stop. In May 2022 a judge convicted him of second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office. He was sentenced to 20 years with 19 suspended, which meant one year in jail, followed by probation. He appealed the conviction.
The civil case was filed in February 2022 in the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, alleging excessive force, negligence and wrongful death. Baltimore attorneys William H. 'Billy' Murphy Jr. and Malcolm Ruff represented the plaintiffs. In late March 2023 the county agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle, without admitting wrongdoing. It was the second-largest police brutality settlement in the county's history, behind only the 2020 payment to the family of William Green. The settlement was announced at the federal courthouse in Greenbelt at a press event, with Ward standing beside her lawyers. County Executive Angela Alsobrooks said no individual should be harmed while in the custody of a police officer.
Ruff told The Daily Record the settlement was an acknowledgment of the pain the family went through and 'just a measure of justice.' The lawyers also said no amount of money could make up for what Ward had endured.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.The Daily Record, 'PG County will pay $7.5M to settle claim of alleged police brutality', March 30, 2023·Archived copy
- 2.The Baltimore Sun, 'Family of Prince George's County man paralyzed after arrest settles civil rights lawsuit for $7.5 million', March 30, 2023·Archived copy
- 3.WJLA, 'Prince George's County to pay Demonte Ward Blake's family $7.5M in police brutality case', March 2023·Archived copy
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