TACOMA – The City Council has approved a $12 million payment and other provisions to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of a woman slain by her police chief husband.
The agreement announced Tuesday, which is subject to approval by a judge hearing the case, would provide the Judson family, the relatives of Crystal Judson Brame, with $1 million from the city’s general fund and $11 million from insurance, city officials said in a statement.
In addition, the city will support naming the new Tacoma-Pierce County Family Justice Center for the slain woman.
“This is the right time for the city and all parties involved in this lawsuit to put this tragic chapter behind us,” Mayor Bill Baarsma said in the statement. “This is the responsible thing to do. It is in the best interests of the Judson children and the City of Tacoma.”
Crystal Brame was fatally wounded in April 2003 by her estranged husband, Police Chief David Brame, who then killed himself. The shooting spawned numerous investigations and lawsuits based on claims that Brame was promoted despite a failed psychological examination and a rape claim against him.
The family’s legal actions also included contentions that officials never investigated reports that Brame abused his wife, did not protect her and intimidated her after she filed for divorce.
The family settled a lawsuit against Pierce County in April. In that agreement the county agreed to spend $300,000 to create a center to provide food, shelter and assistance to domestic violence victims and their children.
The county also promised to conduct domestic violence awareness training for sheriff’s deputies and other law enforcement personnel and public agencies in the county.
City officials acknowledged that the municipal settlement would preserve the family’s “right to continue their investigation of the events surrounding the death of their daughter.”
Family lawyer David Beninger called the agreement “unique in that it protects the citizens of Tacoma from further financial exposure but allows the family to continue taking sworn testimony of those they believe played a role in their daughter’s death.”
Paul Luvera, another lawyer for the family, said the settlement requires the city to work with his firm in taking the sworn testimony of those who have avoided testifying under oath.
“We said from the very beginning that our primary reason for filing our lawsuit was to give us the ability to learn the truth surrounding Crystal’s death,” the dead woman’s father, Lane Judson, said in a statement.
He added that the Brames’ young children, Haley and David, are being cared for by the Judsons’ daughter, Julie, and her husband.
The family’s claims against Baarsma will be dismissed immediately, while the remaining claims, including the claim against the city, will be dismissed upon conclusion of the discovery process and court approval of the settlement, the city statement said.
Also to be dismissed would be claims against former City Manager Ray Corpuz Jr. and former Assistant Police Chief Catherine Woodard, who are scheduled to testify in depositions for the lawsuit.
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