$8 Million Settlement for Man Paralyzed by Cedar Rapids Police Officer

Just after 1:00 a.m. on November 1, 2016, Cedar Rapids Police Sergeant Lucas Jones stopped Jerime Mitchell's truck because of a broken rear license plate light. What followed left Mitchell paralyzed from the neck down. Jones fired three shots into the vehicle, severing Mitchell's spinal cord and rendering him a quadriplegic.

A Linn County grand jury cleared Jones of criminal charges, and he remained on the force. Mitchell and his wife Bracken filed a civil lawsuit against Jones individually and against the City of Cedar Rapids. The litigation revealed that Jones had deliberately deactivated his audio recording equipment during the traffic stop, hiding what occurred from supervisors. Investigators later found he had done the same thing during a separate stop two days earlier, on October 30, 2016. In June 2020, the department fired Jones for policy violations tied to that earlier stop and for lying under oath about it.

RSH Legal attorneys Pressley Henningsen, Laura Schultes, and Emily Anderson represented the Mitchells in both the district court proceedings and on appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court. In Mitchell v. City of Cedar Rapids, 926 N.W.2d 222 (Iowa 2019), the Supreme Court affirmed the lower court's order compelling defendants to produce police investigative reports, clearing the way for full civil discovery into the department's conduct.

With trial set to begin April 20, 2021, Cedar Rapids' insurance carrier, States Insurance, reached a settlement the day before proceedings were to start. The company agreed to pay $8 million to resolve all claims, with no admission of fault or liability by the city or Jones. The Cedar Rapids City Council later approved execution of the agreement.

Mitchell's legal team characterized the amount as a record settlement for a police-involved shooting case in Iowa. Jerime Mitchell, speaking after the agreement was announced, said no sum could replace what he lost: "I would give back that money or any amount of money to have my normal life." The $8 million provides for his lifetime of care needs as a quadriplegic.