$1.5 Million Pact OKd in Wrongful Death Suit

The parents of a black man who died after being stopped by police have settled their wrongful death suits against three Pittsburgh suburbs and five white police officers for $1.5 million.

“We felt it was time to settle,” William King, the attorney for Jonny L. and Narves Gammage, said Tuesday. “It at least gives them something they can live with.”

None of the defendants in the lawsuit admitted any wrongdoing in the death of Jonny Gammage. Gammage was a cousin and business partner of Ray Seals, a professional football player who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers at the time and is now with the Cincinnati Bengals.

The suburbs--Brentwood, Whitehall and Baldwin--will each pay one-third of the settlement.

“We’re just glad that it’s over,” said Brentwood Police Chief George Swinney. “It was an accident that we wish had not happened--but I still contend that those officers were doing their jobs and did nothing wrong that night.”

The Gammages sued the three boroughs, their mayors, their police chiefs and five police officers who were on the scene when their son, Jonny, asphyxiated.

The younger Gammage, 31, of Syracuse, N.Y., died in a struggle with police during a traffic stop in October 1995. Three officers were tried on charges of involuntary manslaughter. One was acquitted, while proceedings involving the other two ended in mistrials.

The officers testified that Gammage was pulled over for erratic driving. They said he became violent when he got out of his car. The officers said they had to restrain him by holding him down on the ground. The cause of death was ruled asphyxiation.