Warren reaches settlement with taser victim Heidi Gill

August 23, 2010
WFMJ.com

The city of Warren has reached a settlement in a civil case from the woman who was repeatedly shocked with a taser gun outside a bar in 2007.

Officer Richard Kovach made national headlines after his tasering of Heidi Gill was all caught on dashcam video. Now nearly three years later, the city hopes to put the whole incident behind them.

Warren's law department and the city's insurance carrier formed the agreement with Gill's two attorneys for the sum of 300 thousand dollars. The city will have to pay their insurance deductible of 250 thousand dollars.

Warren Mayor Michael O'Briend said "These decisions are made by the law department on what the best position would be for the city both financially and liably."

In other words, it may be cheaper to settle on a smaller sum than risk a long legal battle in court that racks up legal fees plus, there's the chance the city could ultimately lose.

The 250 thousand dollar deductible will have to come out of the ci ty's general fund and Councilman Al Novak says the money is just not there there. Novak said "We don't even have money to cut grass. He said that this negligence costs taxpayers a phenomenal amount of money.

Novak says the city can't afford any form of negligence from any of it's employees because it's ultimately up to the taxpayers to foot the bill.