The Haggard Law Firm’s Michael Haggard and Adam Finkel have settled three negligent security wrongful cases against the same apartment complex in Port Orange, Florida for a total of $5.45 Million.
The first of two violent incidents tied to these cases occurred during the early morning of February 26, 2023, at the Sunrise Pointe Apartments in Port Orange, Florida. Several unknown people wearing black clothing and clown masks entered the complex. After driving around the property, a masked criminal exited the vehicle and approached a parked car with two young men sleeping inside: “John Doe 1” and “John Doe 2”. The masked men opened fire and killed both young men.
In the second incident, just a few months later (September 1, 2023) an argument erupted within the same complex, during which firearms were drawn and “John Doe 3” was shot and killed.
Haggard and Finkel filed lawsuits on behalf of the slain young men (we are with holding names out of request by the families) alleging the owners, operators, and management of the Sunrise Pointe Apartments allowed these killings to happen by not meeting the needed security standards to protect residents and guests. The Haggard Law Firm attorneys argued there should have been access control measures, such as gates, as well as security personnel patrolling the property, the defendants maintained that this was a relatively quiet neighborhood and that access control measures and guards were wholly unnecessary.
Critical to The Haggard Law Firm’s case was the deposition of the property manager, who admitted immediately following the February shooting, she and several other management employees voiced a need to hire security guards. That never happened, and thus was a difficult hurdle for the defense to address in the Brown case. Using the manager’s belief that guards should be hired as a prophylactic measure, and that a property need not wait for crime to occur before hiring security personnel, Finkel and Haggard argued that the February shooting was equally preventable through the necessary employment of guards.
The defense argued that Brown and Plummer were not innocent victims. An arrest in the criminal case associated with Brown’s death detailed that Brown was shot and killed over a dispute about money procured in a fraud scheme, in which Brown was a part of. Regarding Plummer, while no arrest was made, the defense presented a theory that Plummer was specifically targeted for his involvement with a female that was associated with the believed-to-be killers.
Ultimately, Brown’s case settled for $1 Million. Shortly thereafter Plummer’s case settled for $1.65 Million and Smith’s case for $2.8 Million. Brown was survived by his minor daughter, Plummer was survived by his father, and Smith was survived by his minor daughter and mother.
