Houston Chronicle, July 18, 2001, Wednesday; Pg. 23

BYLINE: BILL MURPHY

The family of a man who died after being hogtied at a Dillard's store
has settled the wrongful-death lawsuit that it brought against the
department store.

The settlement, reached last week, was confidential, and lawyers
representing Darryl Robinson's family and Dillard's declined to say how
much the family received.

James Doyle, one of the family's lawyers, said, "I'm sure that the
family is very proud to have their son's reputation back and they feel
vindicated by the results of the trial." In May, a state district court
jury in Houston awarded the family $ 800,000 plus interest, which would
bring the award to about $ 1.5 million.

However, when the verdicts came in, Dillard's lawyer Brock Akers said
that the family was entitled to only about half the $ 800,000 award and
that he would be asking Judge Katie Kennedy to reduce the award.

The jury found the negligence of two Harris County sheriff's deputies
and a Dillard's assistant manager caused Robinson's death.

The Robinson family witnesses and the deputies provided sharply
divergent accounts of what took place in the store on Post Oak.

Robinson, a 37-year-old courier company driver, was beaten and hogtied
by the deputies on June 1, 1994, after doing no more than arguing loudly
with a store clerk, according to the family's witnesses.

He died two days later.

But deputy Jeff Robinson and then-deputy Collier Bridges, both doing
off-duty security work at the store, testified that they got into a
violent struggle with Robinson after he jumped on a counter, demanded $
1 million and began cursing.

Robinson fought the officers with superhuman strength because he was in
the throes of a bipolar stage that pumped him full of energy and made
him impervious to pain, a Dillard's-hired psychiatrist testified.

Roger Rider, the Robinson family's lead lawyer, asked jurors to award
the family $ 30 million in actual damages plus punitive damages.