A nasty rift between the most seriously wounded survivor of the 2018 Parkland school massacre and some families of the 17 murdered erupted in court on Thursday in a fight over dueling lawsuit settlements each side recently reached with the shooter as opposing attorneys accused each other of lying.
The immediate fight is over a June agreement survivor Anthony Borges and his parents reached with Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz that would give Borges rights to Cruz’s name and image, approval over any interviews he might do and a $400,000 annuity left Cruz by his deceased mother.
Attorneys for the families of slain students Meadow Pollack, Luke Hoyer and Alaina Petty, and survivor Maddy Wilford, quickly countered with their own $190 million settlement with Cruz.
But as Circuit Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips learned Wednesday, the mutual animosity started during negotiations over a $25 million settlement reached in 2021 with Broward County schools when the families of those killed insisted Borges receive $1 less than they would as an acknowledgement that they suffered the greater loss.
Grief can be hard but wtf. The parents of the deceased didn’t suffer more than the person who survived. You can’t quantify suffering like that and that’s pretty shameful. I understand their worlds have been upended but that’s so petty. $1 less in settlement to acknowledge they had children who were murdered while this person has to deal with what is probably an enormous amount of ptsd among other things.
I agree - huge lack of empathy I think coming maybe from jealousy. If that was their kid who had survived, i imagine they’d want extra help for them, financially or otherwise. Just sad that’s the only kid left and they have to be horrible to him
you’re making sense but none of us went through what these people have gone through
Nothing says im legitimately in grief like demanding you get a larger cut of money than another victim.
Yeah and a whole dollar at that
It sounds extremely Broward County. Nothing hardens my heart like shitty fucking parents.
What a mess. :(
Let’s make it even worse by saying the only survivor should continue to be hurt. I say he should get 1 penny more for the trouble.
I can see all sides on this except for the dude getting the rights to the shooters name and story. That part is pretty gross.
But I understand that the families of the dead want a symbolic nod to their greater loss. And I understand the guy who went through it and has to live a full life with probably terrible PTSD wanted to make that life easier / some degree of medical stuff. I think I side more with the families because that shit about the likeness rights makes me dislike the guy somewhat and think he’s a little shady. But again, this is borked from all angles.
I don’t think a victim getting the rights to any future possibly monetized ventures of the perpetrator is gross I think it’s reasonable, I would hope the victim would donate money to help others but I still don’t think less of the victim for it. I understand what you are saying though but think I see it a tad differently.
