City Pays $2.85M To Family Of Woman Killed By Speeding NJ Cop: Report

CLIFTON, NJ — The city of Clifton will pay $2.85 million to the family of a 65-year-old woman who was fatally injured by a speeding police SUV, according to a report.

Officials said that Clifton officer Garrell Middleton was responding to an attempted armed carjacking in 2020 when he made a hard left to avoid another car and struck pedestrian Sook Hee Lee, who was on the sidewalk.

Her family sued the city and police department, saying Middleton was driving his patrol vehicle "at a high rate of a speed and in a reckless and palpably unreasonable manner."

Lee walked the same route every night to get fresh air and exercise, her family's attorney told NJ.com. She lived less than half a mile from the site of the crash on on Oct. 22, 2020.

According to the lawsuit, Middleton swerved into oncoming traffic and ran over a street sign at the intersection of Brookwood and Allwood Roads, struck Lee, then collided with a nearby house.

The lawsuit claimed Middleton was driving 54 miles per hour in a 25-mph zone, NJ.com reported.

He tried to give Lee medical aid until an ambulance arrived to transport her to St. Joseph’s University Medical Center in Paterson. She was pronounced dead about half an hour later.

Middleton did not face criminal charges in her death.

The settlement agreement was reached in August and does not include an admission of wrongdoing by Middleton or by the city, NJ.com reported.

Lee moved to the United States from her native South Korea in 1985 and lived in Clifton for many years, according to her obituary. She left behind a husband and two children.