The Los Angeles City Council has agreed to an $18 million settlement with two brothers who were severely injured in a collision caused by a speeding LAPD vehicle, officials announced Wednesday.
The council voted 10-3 to approve the settlement in a closed session Tuesday, which was later signed by Mayor Karen Bass. Attorneys reached the agreement on the seventh day of a 14-day trail, with the money to be dispersed over the next three years.
Council members Tim McOsker, Adrin Nazarian and Traci Park voted against the settlement, while members Curren Price and Monica Rodriguez were absent during the vote.
Additionally, the council approved a request that the city attorney draft a letter from the Los Angeles Police Department as part of the settlement.
“From the beginning of this case and continuing through the trial, the city denied responsibility for the actions of its officers and shifted blame to Stephen and Richard Paper, all the while minimizing their injuries and the damages they suffered as a result of the collision,” according to a statement from plaintiffs’ attorney Robert Glassman. “When the evidence was presented at trial and the truth became inescapable, the city raised the white flag.”
“The settlement will not make our clients whole, but it will enable them to get the treatment they need so they can move forward with their lives,” Glassman added.
Ivor Pine, a spokesman for the City Attorney’s Office, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Attorneys Justin Sanders and Robert Dixon of Sanders Roberts LLP represented the city in this lawsuit.
The case stemmed from a collision that occurred on June 4, 2025.
While on duty, LAPD Officer Jason Stevenson allegedly accelerated his vehicle to 80 mph — well above the posted speed limit — without activating his lights or sirens, and crashed into the vehicle occupied by Stephen and Richard Paper, according to their attorneys.
Both brothers suffered severe injuries such as skull and facial fractures, brain bleeds, and numerous spinal and body fractures, which required multiple surgeries and intensive rehabilitation.
An investigation by the LAPD’s Multi-Disciplinary Collision Investigation Team concluded that Stevenson was solely responsible for the collision.
According to Paper’s attorneys, the collision and aftermath were captured on video.
During the trial, an attorney for the city told the jury that Stephen Paper was responsible for the collision because he allegedly made an unsafe left turn, and sought to minimize the Paper brothers’ damages, emphasizing that they were in their 70s and lived in rural Minnesota, according to the law firm representing the brothers.
Witnesses, on behalf of the brothers, testified that the LAPD officer was solely at fault, and the Paper brothers will suffer lifelong injuries as a result of the crash.