Re “Murder Victim’s Brother Far from Ready to Settle”
Gerald Bennett has played the scene over dozens of times in his mind – his mother lying gravely ill in a downtown hospital, being asked if she will accept the smallest settlement offer yet in the murder of her youngest daughter.
The family lawyer at the time insisted Martha Lou Harris, who died last month at 71, mumbled an affirmation, heatedly denied by her only son.
One problem is that the $400,000 figure she supposedly assented to has became the chief reference point ever since, in negotiations for the past 12 months.
Another prickly contention point is that Mrs. Harris, cloudily emerging from surgery when the jackpot question was posed, was alone in the room when the family’s former attorney, Robert McNeil, said his client embraced the suggested settlement.
Three years earlier, her daughter, JoAnn Crystal Harris, 29, single and pregnant, was dating the married soldier convicted of brutally ending her life late on a Friday afternoon at the Culver City National Guard Armory. She wanted to join the National Guard.
The Bennett-Harris family — now Mr. Bennett and his two surviving sisters — filed a civil suit accusing the state and the National Guard of liability. According to trial testimony, Sgt. Scott Ansman, now serving a life-without-possibility-of-parole term, solicited help in executing the murder. One of those persons carried the case to the Culver City Police Dept. in the same month Mr. Ansman killed Ms. Harris.
Mr. McNeil’s successor, Mario Vega, is not talking. He did not return calls.
“My mother was heavily sedated when she was asked to accept the $400,000,” Mr. Bennett said.
He insists the family’s previous attorneys “forced” Mrs. Harris into an agreement “because they don’t want to make waves with the state Attorney General’s office,” which is handling the defense of the case.
Dep. Atty. Gen. David Adida “is trying to save the state money,” Mr. Bennett said.
“But when it came to (kidnap victim) Jaycee Dugard, no problem. It was $20 million, flat out. When it came to the gentleman killed by the BART officers in Oakland, no problem again. Once the killer was convicted, no problem. His family got compensated.”
Why, he wonders, should his sister’s murder be different?
(To be continued)
Mr. Bennett
