Dispute between survivors of the Parkland massacre and some families of the dead breaks out in court

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida. — An ugly standoff broke out in court Thursday between the most seriously injured survivor of the 2018 Parkland school massacre and some families of the 17 slain people amid a dispute over competing settlements both sides recently reached with the gunman while opposing lawyers accused each other of lying.

The immediate dispute revolves around a settlement that survivor Anthony Borges and his parents reached in June with Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz, which gives Borges rights to Cruz’s name and likeness, permission for any interviews he might give, and a $400,000 annuity left to Cruz by his late mother.

Lawyers for the families of murdered students Meadow Pollack, Luke Hoyer and Alaina Petty, as well as survivor Maddy Wilford, quickly countered with their own $190 million settlement with Cruz.

But as District Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips learned Wednesday, the mutual animosity began during negotiations over a $25 million settlement reached with Broward County schools in 2021, when families of those killed insisted that Borges receive a dollar less than they were entitled to in recognition that they had suffered the greater loss.

Borges’ attorney, Alex Arreaza, believed his client deserved $5 million from that pot because Borges would have to deal with medical costs for the rest of his life. This led to his client being kicked out of the group when he didn’t budge. The dispute continued during negotiations over a $127 million settlement that the families and surviving victims reached with the FBI. The Borgeses eventually agreed to their own settlements.

Borges, 21, was shot five times in the upper body and legs. The once promising soccer star almost bled to death.

“The Borgeses are tired of being treated like second-class citizens,” Arreaza said after the hearing. “We never wanted to address this, but the reality is that they kicked us out of the group because they wanted to tell us what to get, and the Borgeses have every right to demand what they demand.”

But David Brill, lead attorney for the Pollack, Hoyer and Petty families as well as Wilford, said Arreaza insulted the families by telling them he was tired of hearing about their loved ones’ deaths and exaggerated the amount of Borges’ future medical costs.

“This bad blood, on our side, despite this history, we have always done the right thing for the Borgeses, also in this respect. And that 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 at each other and accused each other of dishonesty. To make matters worse, the judge half-joked at one point that the hostility was so great that she felt like she was negotiating a contested divorce – and that she would grant it.

The immediate battle for the competing settlements consists of two parts.

First, Brill argued that state law prohibits Borges from acquiring rights to Cruz’s name and image, nor from any money he might make from his story, because Cruz was stripped of those rights when he was convicted.

In any case, Brill said, no one person should have the right to decide whether Cruz can give interviews. The right should belong to all families and survivors, he argued, and that 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 broke a verbal contract to cooperate in their lawsuits against Cruz, split the pension money and donate it to charity if it ever came to that. Instead, Brill said, Arreaza secretly got the killer to settle without telling anyone until it happened.

Arreaza insists Brill is lying about a verbal contract and that Borges needs the potential retirement money for his future medical care. He insists state law doesn’t prevent Cruz from transferring his name and future income, but also says Borges would never give Cruz an interview, so the other families shouldn’t worry about it.

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 on the pension or she would schedule a hearing that she said would be painful for both the families and Borges and would once again give Cruz the attention he craves.

She said she was particularly saddened that Thursday’s hearing came a day after a school shooting in Georgia that killed four people, and that she felt the sides’ mutual hostility was causing them to ignore the immense tragedy they had all experienced.

“Everyone should look deep into their minds,” she told the lawyers. “Is that what everyone wants to focus on?”