They say money can’t buy happiness.
City of Brighton officials have banked on it at least providing some piece of mind.
Last week, the city finally attached a dollar amount – $34,000 – to its lawsuit against Dawn Delay, one of two women who turned this city on its head two years ago with false rape allegations.
Since it was determined that Delay wouldn’t face charges for her false claim, Brighton city councilors have been bullish about making sure someone pay for not only the psychological scars etched on this city but also the tangible costs of an unprecedented police effort.
Good for them. I like the council taking a collective stand that you won’t do this to the people of our community. It says something.
But something also has to be said for the fact that we’re coming up on two years since this whole incident started.
The pace of legal depositions and other court proceedings don’t rule out it could be another two years before this is resolved. That is all with the assumption that the city gets what they’re asking for and this doesn’t end, as many of these civil grievances tend to do, with a settlement for a lesser amount.
Couple that with the associated legal fees and resources that will now be devoted to the city winning a favorable judgment and one starts to wonder if this 34K (certainly not chump change but also not the jackpot) is worth it.
The pessimist in me looks at what it won’t do. It won’t replace the innocence that this community lost. Like it or not, there were seeds of mistrust planted in this incident, whether it be residents looking at each other or Hispanic residents questioning the motives of the local police department.
You can throw $100 million at the problem but those are only issues that, hopefully, will heal with time.
The thought is, according to Mayor Jan Pawlowski, that this will bring some measure of closure to what occurred. I respect that thought.
The problem is, for however long this takes to settle, an ugly smudge in the city’s history will be revisited through legal proceedings and media coverage. It’s like trying to repeatedly close a door but never thinking to remove the large wooden block keeping it from closing.
I don’t think the city has to worry about precedents here. This was clearly a confluence of unfortunate circumstances and individuals in need of help who began this saga. If the city wiped its hands clean and decided to move on, I don’t think it would be opening a Pandora’s Box of similar incidents.
But as this incident has already proved, maybe moving on just isn’t that easy.
My hope, if the city is successful in this suit, is that this money doesn’t simply vanish to earn interest in some city coffer.
My first thought would be to put it towards the police department’s victim advocates program – help the individuals who help real victims of sexual assaults and other crimes or put it towards funding another department detective to handle these specific kind of crimes.
If this money means that much, if it’s worth the battle ahead to get it, then make sure it means something.
