Callaway County insurance provider to pay $2 million for DeBrodie settlement
Callaway County’s insurance provider will pay $2 million for its part of the settlement with Carl DeBrodie’s family.
The county will pay for this through it’s insurance provider, the Missouri Public Entity Risk Management Fund, as laid out in an agreement with DeBrodie’s mother Carolyn Summers.
Summers settled a federal lawsuit with the Callaway County Public Administrator’s Office and Callaway County Special Services on Dec. 5 over her son’s death. DeBrodie, a man with disabilities, was found by Fulton police encased in concrete in April 2017 after he went missing from his group home. The terms of the settlement were kept under seal, but ABC 17 News discovered the cost of the payments through an open records request.
Investigators have not been able to determine what caused DeBrodie’s death, but the lawsuit claimed employees of the group home forced him to fight other residents for their entertainment.
Ross Bridges, attorney for the county in the case, said that the $2 million would be paid by MOPERM.
Payments will be made annually to a trust fund set up for Summers. Judge Douglas Harpool ordered details of the settlement, such as when payments would be made to the trust and in what amounts, to be sealed from the public.
The group home Second Chance Homes of Fulton, as well as several individual employees, will also pay as part of the settlement.
