Maryland Man Injured During Traffic Stop Hires Lawyer Billy Murphy
OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — Relatives of a Maryland man who was severely injured during a traffic stop have hired attorney William H. "Billy" Murphy Jr., who represented Freddie Gray, the Baltimore man who died in 2015 after suffering a spinal injury in a police van.
The Washington Post reports that the family of 24-year-old Demonte Ward-Blake has hired Baltimore-based lawyer.
Murphy says Ward-Bake is paralyzed from the waist down, with broken vertebrae in his neck, after his encounter last Thursday with police in Prince George's County.
Police have said Ward-Blake landed on his neck while in handcuffs as an officer pulled him to the ground. Ward-Blake allegedly tried to flee after being stopped for driving with expired tags.
Murphy helped negotiate a $6.4 million settlement with the city of Baltimore for Gray's family.
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