Widow Accepts $1.9 Million in Killing by Deputy

The widow of Jeffrey Bray and San Diego County officials reached agreement Thursday on a settlement of about $1.9 million in a wrongful-death lawsuit over the fatal shooting of Bray last year by a reserve sheriff’s deputy, according to attorney Gerald Davee.

Davee, who represents Lena Bray and her 4-month-old baby, Amanda, said the settlement still has to be approved by the Board of Supervisors.

Lena Bray, 23, was pregnant when Jeffrey Bray, 21, was killed May 10 as he drove his truck into the driveway of the couple’s apartment complex in Vista.

The agreement between Lena Bray and the county did not settle a separate lawsuit filed by Jeffrey Bray’s parents, Joe and Brenda Bray of Conway, Ark. Their lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial in November in U.S. District Court here.

Davee and Dwight Ritter, who represents Joe and Brenda Bray, met with Deputy County Counsel Nathan C. Northup in a settlement conference in the chambers of U.S. Magistrate Roger C. McKee. After the conference, Ritter told reporters his clients were unable to reach a settlement with the county.

“We’re done for the day. We don’t have a settlement,” said Ritter as he walked out of the Federal Courthouse in San Diego.

Joe Bray said “we’re getting ready to go to trial” on Nov. 4.

Davee declined to reveal the exact size of the settlement made to the Bray widow and child. But he said in a story that appeared in The Times last week that a $1.9-million settlement figure “is pretty close.”

Other sources, including a county official who requested anonymity, also said last week that the figure was close to what the county had offered Lena Bray to settle the lawsuit she filed against the county and former Reserve Deputy John Wickham, who shot Bray.

Still to be determined is where the financially strapped county will get the money to pay the settlement. Supervisor Susan Golding said last week she had no idea how the county will be able to afford the $1.9-million award. Davee said the issue will be discussed by supervisors in closed session next week.

Northup declined to offer any details of Thursday’s meeting and refused to confirm that a settlement was reached with Lena Bray.

“Suffice it to say that we are discussing certain terms of a possible settlement of the matter with the widow and child of Jeff Bray. There will be further proceedings with respect to the parents,” Northup said.

Davee said both sides are still discussing details of how the settlement will be paid to Lena and Amanda Bray.

“We’re trying to work out an annuity plan. This will include a fund for Amanda’s college education and income for Mrs. Bray to support her and her daughter,” said Davee. “If the county agrees to settle, they won’t have to pay any more (than the $1.9 million), just fund the annuity. The annuity company will pay the clients for as long as they live.”

The total value of the settlement will be worth millions more over the lifetimes of Lena and Amanda Bray, Davee said.

However, Northup said it was premature to say that the Board of Supervisors will approve the settlement.

“To say that the parents and or widow and child are going to get some money is not necessarily the case,” Northup said.

Joe and Brenda Bray have said repeatedly that their intent in filing the lawsuit was not necessarily to collect damages from the county. The couple want Wickham and Sheriff’s Deputy William C. Fewell, who also fired shots at Jeffrey Bray, tried on criminal charges.

Wickham, 31, was dismissed last week by Sheriff Jim Roache. Roache refused to offer a specific reason for dismissing Wickham, but he suggested that Wickham’s job performance played a role in his decision.

Wickham had worked as a reserve peace officer for almost seven years. Reserve deputies are volunteers who help paid deputies as needed.

Jeffrey Bray was unarmed when Wickham and Fewell followed him into a Vista apartment complex, thinking that Bray was driving a stolen pickup truck. Bray, who was driving his own truck, backed up and rammed the deputies’ patrol car. Both Wickham and Fewell opened fire, and Bray was killed when one of the shots fired by Wickham struck him in the head.

Bray’s death stirred considerable community outrage, but Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller termed the killing justifiable and cleared Wickham and Fewell in February. Joe and Brenda Bray criticized Miller’s action.

“I want to see Wickham and Fewell get what’s coming to them. . . . All I want is justice served,” Joe Bray told The Times last week. He reiterated those feelings in interviews with the media Thursday.

Northup criticized Joe Bray’s motives in filing the lawsuit and charged that he is using the suit as a forum to try to get Wickham and Fewell convicted of criminal charges.

“Mr. Bray is trying to get things out of this case beyond what the civil suit will provide. I think he wants a forum,” Northup said.

He added that getting a jury to convict Wickham and Fewell “cannot be accomplished in a civil case and may not be accomplished in any criminal proceedings.”