A bird in the hand

You have to wonder if Karen Kingdom has ever heard of that saying.

WEST PALM BEACH — Karen Kingdom turned down $250,000 last week to settle a lawsuit accusing Riviera Beach and a city police officer of using her and other motorists as "human shields" to catch a car thief who she claimed was barreling down the Blue Heron bridge.

On Thursday, a jury in U.S. District Court decided the 46-year-old Riviera Beach resident deserved nothing.

After deliberating for less than three hours, the federal jury cleared the city and officer Claude Cosby of any wrongdoing in the May 2002 pursuit that ended on the west side of the bridge spanning the Intracoastal Waterway.

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Most telling was that no one reported the incident to police until lawyers were hired, he said. If an officer had held a group of motorists at gunpoint and put them in danger of being hit by a speeding car, surely someone would have contacted the police or the state attorney, he said.

Usually in Florida a municipality is only liable for $100,000. Reports had Kingdom suing for over four million. If Judge Hurley ruled favorably, Kingdom could have collected more than the limit.

Riviera Beach facing a million in legal fees to defend the case, offered Kingdom a settlement. Instead she rolled the dice and lost. Greed can cause people to make the most foolish decisions.

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