Bacon's Rebellion

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UVA to Pay $9 Million in Mass-Shooting Settlement

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by

James A. Bacon
in

The University of Virginia has settled with the families of five victims of a November 2022 mass shooting that occurred after a class outing to Washington, D.C. The university will pay $2 million each to the families of football players Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry and another $3 million to be divided between two other students who were wounded.

“The settlements approved today is [sic] just one small step on this terrible road that these families are on,” Elliott Buckner, a lawyer for Perry’s family, told media at the courthouse Friday, reports the The Daily Progress.

However, Buckner urged UVa to release a state-commissioned report that delved into the University’s failure to follow up on warning signs that Christopher Darnell Jones, the alleged shooter, was a potential menace to the university community.

“The most important thing for these families, the thing that will really bring them closure, is to know what happened to their sons,” said Buckner. “It is time for UVa and the commonwealth to release the report.”

After promising to make the report public soon after its release by the Attorney General’s office, the Ryan administration reversed course and said it would withhold the document until after Jones’ trial, which is scheduled for next year.

— JAB

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19 responses to “UVA to Pay $9 Million in Mass-Shooting Settlement”

  1. f/k/a_tmtfairfax Avatar
    f/k/a_tmtfairfax

    So much for using Virginia's Red Flag Law. UVA and the Commonwealth deserve to pay these sums.

  2. Wahoo'74 Avatar
    Wahoo’74

    Morgan Bettinger out-of-court settlement, now this one. Matan Goldstein is also suing Ryan and UVA for their abject refusal to protect him and other Jewish students from continual anti-Semitic harassment.

    Isn’t it time for the UVA BOV to address President Ryan’s performance? Chaos reigns under his self-professed “great and good” culture for Mr. Jefferson’s University.

    1. Eric the half a troll Avatar
      Eric the half a troll

      “Isn’t it time for the UVA BOV to address President Ryan’s performance?”

      Clearly what TJC is laying the groundwork for… September is coming, eh…?

  3. Stephen Haner Avatar
    Stephen Haner

    You will never see that report. The Powers That Be will keep that from happening. Preventing release will prove to be one of the elements of the plea bargain negotiations when the alleged murderer approaches the (long delayed) trial. His defense team will threaten to focus on it in the defense, and it will work wonders on the final agreement.

    1. Eric the half a troll Avatar
      Eric the half a troll

      It will be released in September or shortly thereafter, Haner, regardless of whether it is in the best interest of the university or not… all part of the plan…

    2. Eric the half a troll Avatar
      Eric the half a troll

      It will be released in September or shortly thereafter, Haner, regardless of whether it is in the best interest of the university or not… all part of the plan…

  4. James McCarthy Avatar
    James McCarthy

    UVa's $29M athletic budget will recover with new income from NCAA deal. May be time for a School of Amateur Athletics.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      One presumes UVA had insurance. The 9 million may well be chump change for them.

      1. Stephen Haner Avatar
        Stephen Haner

        Yes, $2 million is a cap per claim under the state's internal insurance system, as I think we saw noted in another recent case in the news.

        When I was at the AG's office, the big UVA case was the collapse of that balcony on The Lawn. Plaintiffs wanted to claim design error. They were going to allege TJ himself was to blame…

      2. Stephen Haner Avatar
        Stephen Haner

        Yes, $2 million is a cap per claim under the state's internal insurance system, as I think we saw noted in another recent case in the news.

        When I was at the AG's office, the big UVA case was the collapse of that balcony on The Lawn. Plaintiffs wanted to claim design error. They were going to allege TJ himself was to blame…

        1. Lefty665 Avatar
          Lefty665

          Well, he was to blame, on the Lawn and at the state Capitol collapse too. Suspending load bearing areas was not one of TJs better ideas.

  5. walter smith Avatar
    walter smith

    OK everybody…please sit down.
    This was a good outcome for UVA. I think just the wide receiver – Harris? – was destined for a pro career and could have put up a BIG lost wages argument. Also the drain on the families, etc.

    Now, the plaintiff lawyer is correct – again, me out of type – in saying the outside counsel report needs to be released. It does. As to the UVA manufactured excuse for withholding it until after the trial (The Daily Progress had an excellent article on this skullduggery between Chief Longo, JJ Davis and Commonwealth Attorney Hingeley in April), the supposed fair trial argument was a fabrication. It would seem to make sense to move the trial out of the Cville area, except the defendant would likely fare best in Woke Cville! But is that justice for the families? Maybe change venue AND release the report so the people in Cville and concerned with UVA can know all the facts, and somewhere neutral, knowing all the facts can have a relatively neutral trial actually based on the concept of justice. (How quaint. We've crossed that Rubicon)

    Also, there are 2 FOIA cases coming up on release of threat assessment reports. I have one in Henrico General District Court on June 18 and The Daily Progress has one in the Albemarle/Cville court on June 21. The statutory language is problematic – much of the Virginia FOIA language needs to be cleaned up – I have too much experience – threat assessments are excluded from FOIA, but then added back in for certain felonious activities being charged, but then an exception follows for FERPA "student records." If the threat assessment is about a student, UVA contends here that everything is a FERPA student record. I think WHAT WAS INTENDED (hint hint for the legislature) was to protect OTHER students, not the transgressor student. We'll see.

    It seems to me – and here guessing – both of these items will reflect poorly on UVA. That CD Jones was a known wolf and UVA dropped the ball. My guess, again, would be that UVA's DEI racial obsession was part of it. We'll see.

    1. Eric the half a troll Avatar
      Eric the half a troll

      ”…the outside counsel report needs to be released…”

      So says the shadow board, Walt…?

      1. walter smith Avatar
        walter smith

        You are such a fool with BDS, YDS, TDS…the Three Faces of Eve Derangement Syndrome.

        The plaintiff lawyer said so. I agree. I think most Normies also agree.

    2. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      I appreciate your efforts to bring it to light and wish you luck. Not betting the farm….

      1. walter smith Avatar
        walter smith

        Nor am I!

  6. StarboardLift Avatar
    StarboardLift

    Hunh. Why are the victims' families not suing Christopher Darnell Jones's family, if the warning signs were so evident? Family first.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      why? are they going to get that kind of money from the Jones family? 😉 So much easier and lucrative to blame UVA!

      1. StarboardLift Avatar
        StarboardLift

        Exactly. Not about tort, about deepest pockets.

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