No wonder lawyers for the children of the late Martha Lou Harris and for the state Attorney General’s office “did not come close” to agreement in an all-day mediation session on Friday.
The plaintiffs are looking for a much fatter payday.
More than a year ago, the state offered Gerald Bennett and his two surviving sisters $400,000.
Dep. Atty. Gen. David Adida hoped that would end the negligent death civil suit the family had filed against the California National Guard and others in the Aug. 24, 2007, murder of their pregnant sister, JoAnn Crystal Harris, at the Culver City Guard Armory.
But they have been at loggerheads for more than 15 months.
This morning Superior Court Judge Kevin C. Brazile ordered the two sides to return to his courtroom on Tuesday, Jan.3, prepared to go to trial.
The newspaper has learned from court sources that attorney Mark Geragos, representing the Bennett-Harris family the past two months, apparently is seeking between $5 million and $10 million from the more or less broke state.
Such hefty figures were being discussed a year ago last summer, two legal teams ago, according to Mr. Bennett when his mother was hospitalized. He has strenuously argued that Mrs. Harris, who died this past August, was in no mental condition to agree to a $400,000 settlement arranged by attorney Robert McNeill Jr.
Mr. McNeil, reportedly in line to receive well over half of that amount, parted from the Bennett-Harris family shortly afterward.
