Follow-Up: Wal-Mart Settles Trampling Case, Avoids Criminal Charges

Back in November, we did a little write-up about the Wal-Mart employee who was trampled to death as the doors to the store opened on Black Friday. The case was finally settled in court last week…

Wal-Mart agreed Wednesday to pay nearly $2 million and improve safety at its 92 New York stores as part of a deal with prosecutors that avoids criminal charges in the trampling death of a temporary worker last year. Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said that if she had brought criminal charges against the retailer in the worker’s death, the company would have been subject to only a $10,000 fine if convicted. Rice declined to say what charges were considered against Wal-Mart, citing the secrecy of grand jury proceedings.

Instead, she said, the company has agreed to implement an improved crowd-management plan for post-Thanksgiving Day sales, set up a $400,000 victims’ compensation and remuneration fund, and give $1.5 million to Nassau County social services programs and nonprofit groups. The agreement included no admission of guilt by Wal-Mart.

Wait, a retailer only gets fined for killing their employees?! And what about the crowd? They’ve got to have security cameras pointed on the front entrance – shouldn’t those who actually stomped him into the ground for some cheap DVDs at least have to face Jdimypai Damour’s family? This is what their lawyer had to say…

Edward H. Gersowitz, an attorney representing Damour’s family in a civil lawsuit, blasted the settlement and said the family was never consulted before the deal was announced, a charge the prosecutor’s office denies. Gersowitz also called for a special prosecutor.

“The ability of Wal-Mart to, in effect, buy off this criminal investigation demonstrates the epitome of corporate arrogance that has become all too familiar in this day and age, and shows how Wal-Mart has nothing but contempt for the victims of such corporate malfeasance,” he said in a statement.

Any victims who accept payment from the Wal-Mart compensation fund will be required to waive their right to a separate civil suit against Wal-Mart, Rice said. Also, she said, Wal-Mart has agreed to advertise the compensation fund in the daily and weekly newspapers that cover Valley Stream and its surrounding neighborhoods.

I didn’t expect Wal-Mart to admit guilt, as that would be like Dick Cheney admitting that Iraq was a clusterfuck (for everyone but his business interests, of course), but I did expect:
1. Criminals to be treated and prosecuted as criminals.
2. The family to be rolling in so much cash that Wal-Mart’s stock would actually take a noticeable hit that day. ($400,000 is like, what, one day’s profit for these people?)

But I guess that’s just me, living on Fantasy Island again. That $1.5 million to non-profit groups is more like a tax write-off than a goddamn punishment – they probably spent more money on those feel-good commercials about their stores than they did on this settlement. I’d say that this is a real spit in the face to Wal-Mart employees, but I think their faces have been soaked with spittle for a very long time.