FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A nasty rift developed in court Thursday between the most seriously injured survivor of the 2018 Parkland school massacre and some of the families of the 17 slain victims. The feud centered on recent settlements each side reached with the gunman, while opposing lawyers accused each other of lying.
The current battle is over a settlement that Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivor Anthony Borges and his parents reached in June with Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz. The agreement would give Borges the rights to Cruz's name and likeness, permission for any interviews he might give, and a $400,000 annuity that Cruz received from his late mother.
Lawyers for the families of murdered students Meadow Pollack, Luke Hoyer and Alaina Petty, and survivor Maddy Wilford, quickly reached a $190 million settlement with Cruz.
But as Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips learned Wednesday, the mutual hostility began during negotiations over a $25 million settlement reached in 2021 with Broward County schools. The victims’ families demanded that Borges be paid $1 less than they would receive, in recognition that they had suffered the greatest loss.
Borges' attorney, Alex Arreaza, believed his client deserved $5 million from that pot, since Borges will have a lifetime of medical expenses. That resulted in his client being kicked out of the group when he refused to budge. The fight continued during negotiations for a $127 million settlement that the families and surviving victims reached with the FBI. The Borgeses eventually reached their own settlements.
Borges, 21, was shot five times in the torso and legs, leaving the once promising soccer star nearly bleeding to death.
“The Borgeses are tired of being treated like second-class citizens,” Arreaza said after the hearing. “We never wanted to express that before, but the reality is that they threw us out of the group because they wanted to dictate what we should get, and the Borgeses have every right to ask for what they asked for.”
But David Brill, the lead attorney for the Pollack, Hoyer and Petty families and Wilford, said Arreaza had insulted the families by saying he was tired of hearing about their deceased loved ones and had exaggerated how much Borges' future medical bills would be.
“This bad blood, on our side we have repeatedly done what is good for the Borgeses, despite that history, on every corner, even on this one. And this is the thanks we get,” Brill said after the hearing.
Phillips had to intervene several times during Thursday’s 90-minute session as the parties shouted over each other and accused each other of dishonesty. To make matters worse, the judge half-joked at one point that the level of hostility was so high that she felt she was presiding over a contested divorce — and granting it.
The direct battle for the warring settlements consists of two parts.
First, Brill argued that state law prohibits Borges from acquiring rights to Cruz's name and likeness and to the money he might earn from his story, since Cruz was stripped of these rights when he was convicted.
In any case, Brill said, one person should not have the right to decide whether Cruz can give interviews. That should belong to all the families and survivors, he argued, which would ensure that Cruz would never be heard from again. Cruz, 25, is serving a life sentence in an undisclosed prison.
Second, he said, Arreaza violated an oral agreement to cooperate in their lawsuits against Cruz, split the annuity money and donate it to charity if it ever materializes. Instead, Brill said, Arreaza secretly got the killer to settle without telling anyone until it was done.
Arreaza maintains that Brill is lying about a verbal contract and that Borges needs the potential annuity money to help with his future medical care. He maintains that state law does not prohibit Cruz from signing over his name and future income, but also says that Borges would never agree to an interview with Cruz, so the other families don't have to worry about that.
Phillips said she would decide later whether Borges, the families or anyone else owns Cruz's publicity rights, but urged the parties to negotiate a settlement over the annuity. Otherwise, she will schedule a hearing that she said would be painful for both the families and Borges, and would give Cruz the attention he craves again.
She said she was particularly saddened that Thursday’s hearing came a day after four people were killed in a Georgia school shooting. She felt the parties had let their hostility toward each other wane over the immense tragedy they have all experienced.
“Everyone should look deep into their thoughts,” she told the lawyers. “Is this what everyone wants to focus on?”
