[holymoly]

Ricardo Oliva...was holding a mop while working atop a building. Deputies suspected he might be a sniper preparing to shoot them.

Sounds like an honest mistake, to me. After all, mops do bear a striking resemblance to "sniper" rifles.  </sarcasm>

[RHINO369]

70K is all he gets? If the woman in the nexy cubicle desides she wants more money all she has to do is say i touched her ass and she gets much more than 70k.

[WestTexasWend]

...and they should make those deputies carry mops.

[headsonpikes]

He should also get a judgment to slap those dumbass deputies in the butt with a hot tar-loaded mop!

Tar-babies are people, too!

[linkinpunk]

Lerman called the deputies' actions a "comedy of errors"

Yeah, the whole thing is cracking me up.

[Nov3]

70,000?!?!

No mention of whether the deputies still have their job. They should be charged. Did they see him firing his mop?

[Roccus]

Boys with toys.

[Paradox]

70K is what getting shot is worth? Thats b*llsh*t! I am no fan of frivolous law suits, but this one ain't! I am not sure about the extent of the injuries suffered, but I'd have held out for 10x more..

[lilylangtree]

Gotta send this to the husband of a friend. He's a roofer too.

[kingu]

Gosh I'm glad that everyone is in a rush to give away my tax money. Personally I'm quite relieved that this guy was kind enough to simply accept whatever the review board gave him.

We're darn lucky that the bullets that went over that building didn't hurt anyone else.

[bannedfromdu]

Stevem Lerman, now that's an attorney I'll never use.

[najida]

Dittos,

Here he is, workin' for a livin' and mindin' his on business.

This guy deserves more....

[in the Arena]

Sheriff's officials admitted from the beginning that three deputies who heard the shots but could not see the gunfire from the other side of a building confused roofers atop Melody Liquor for gunmen.

That statement alone should have been enough to terminated the deputies employment...

[mercy]

This guys lawyers must have taken a payoff. The guy deserves 7 million at least. If the idiot deputies that shot him are still on the force the county deserves to be bankrupt.

[sergeantdave]

I'm happy I live in an area where the sheriff deputies can distinguish the difference between a mop and a rifle. Must be because these deputies realize that one fires bullets while the other drips water.

When an idiot slips through and gets a badge, the citizens here get him fired. Maybe this community got one of our rejects.

[dbehsman]

From the article:
"Man who was shot by deputies during a Harbor Gateway shootout gets $70,000 for his injuries.
A roofer mistakenly shot by sheriff's deputies during a chaotic gunbattle in Harbor Gateway last year has been awarded $70,000.
The county Claims Board approved the settlement on Monday for Ricardo Oliva, who was holding a mop while working atop a building. Deputies suspected he might be a sniper preparing to shoot them."



And the little old lady who spilled coffee on her lap gets three million. I think we should have a constitutional right to consistency.

[bk1000]

We must act immediately to ban all mops for the safety of the children.

[absolootezer0]

so, just out of curiousity..
how many bullets did it take to take this guy off the roof?
was it rifle or pistol rounds?
how many deputies fired at the guy?

[Hegemony Cricket]

Sounds like we need more info here. Was this a fully automatic assault mop (with a banana clip, perhaps)? Or was it one of those snub-nosed Saturday-night special Johnny mops?

[Triggerhippie]

When mops are outlawed, only outlaws will have mops.

[untrained skeptic]

The Deputies were being shot at.

It sounds like more than one of them mistook the guy for a person with a gun.

It sounds like his injurys are superficial.

$70,000 likely covers his medical expenses, legal fees, and pays for his time off work. He likely even ended up with a bit to compensate him for the pain he endured.

The deputies screwed up, but there was no harmful intent, and with a guy committing suicide by cop and firing lots of rounds, it's likely there were a lot of echos and sounded like they were being fired on from different directions.

The Sheriff's department is right to pay for the costs their mistake resulted in. The roofer deserves our sympathy, but he doesn't deserve a huge check so he never has to work again.

It sounds like a fair and reasonable settlement to me.