Sen. Audrey Gibson, D-Jacksonville is making a renewed attempt to pass a bill that would require the state to pay $1.75 million to the estate of a woman who was critically injured and later died after a Florida Highway Patrol officer used a stun gun on her.
Gibson filed the “claim” bill (SB 50) this week to seek compensation for the estate of Danielle Maudsley.
The bill is filed for consideration during the 2019 legislative session, after similar measures stalled during the 2017 and 2018 sessions.
The proposal stems from the 2011 arrest of the Maudsley, 20, on traffic charges. Maudsley was taken to a Florida Highway Patrol substation in Pinellas Park for processing. While handcuffed, Maudsley tried to flee by running out a side door.
A trooper followed and fired his stun gun into her back, causing the woman to fall to the pavement, the bill says.
Maudsley suffered a traumatic brain injury and remained in a vegetative state until she died in September 2013, according to the bill.
A $1.95 million settlement was reached in 2015, but sovereign immunity laws prevented the state from paying more than $200,000 without legislative passage of a "claim" bill.
Gibson's bill would direct payment of the remaining $1.75 million.