County Settles Lawsuit

Anne Arundel County (Md.) officials have agreed to an APCO review of their public safety dispatching operation to settle with the family of a woman who was murdered in August 2001 who had sued the county. The lawsuit was thrown out by a federal judge earlier this year on the grounds that state law limited the county’s liability in the matter, but the family was appealing that decision through the courts. Now the county has agreed to the review. A joint announcement said there was no financial payment as part of the settlement. “It was kind of what we had hoped for from the beginning,” said Roger Yoerges, one of the attorneys for the family of Yvette Beakes, who was kidnapped and murdered from a transit station. A witness dialed 911 to report the crime, but information about the suspect van the witness reported was never passed along to investigating officers. Read more here.