Cordale Handy's family prepares for retrial in civil suit against St. Paul police
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The family of a man shot and killed by St. Paul police say they are being forced to relive a nightmare during a federal civil retrial.
Cordale Handy was shot and killed in March 2017 by two St. Paul police officers responding to reports of domestic violence in the Dayton's Bluff neighborhood.
The officer involved was found not guilty in a criminal case, but a federal jury found him guilty of excessive force in a 2023 civil case, awarding the family $11.5 million.
"It's traumatic because you are reliving that event over and over again," said Valerie Handy-Carey.
The Handy family says preparing for the retrial of the federal civil case against the St. Paul Police Department is dredging up pain and trauma they've already lived through.
"When Cordale's life was taken, it wasn't just my sister. It's everything and everybody that loved Cordale that's connected to him it impacted us," said Valerie Handy-Carey.
Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said the officers' use of deadly force was justified and he didn't file criminal charges.
Kim Handy-Jones, Cordale's mother, sued the city shortly after the incident but dropped her case. She refiled her lawsuit in 2020.
"This is not about money for us, understand that it's not about money. It's about full accountability and that's what we want," said Kim Handy-Jones.
Judge David Doty ended up reducing Handy's award to $2.5 million. He ruled that the jury's award was quote "patently excessive" and that the jury was "impermissibly swayed by the plaintiff's understandable mental anguish and grief."
Now, the retrial will focus solely on compensatory damages.
"No amount of money, as Kim Handy-Jones has rightfully stated, can replace the life of her son," said attorney Jonathan McClellan. "And the judge's actions call into question the value of Black life in the eyes of the law."
Handy's family and supporters say the new jury will not hear all the testimony the previous jury did, but they are determined to get justice.
"This trial here today is to determine the value of Cordale's life again," McClellan said.
WCCO reached out to the city of St. Paul, but because this is in active litigation, they do not have anything to say at this time.
