Police, county to pay two girls $400,000

Keith Paul

Monday, Aug. 27, 2001 | 10:52 a.m.

The Metro Police Department and Clark County have agreed to pay $400,000 to two girls orphaned in a 1997 domestic murder-suicide.

The girls' mother was shot to death by their stepfather, who then killed himself, hours after a deputy sheriff served the man with a court order but failed to remove him or his guns from the house.

Metro's fiscal affairs board today is expected to approve the department's $200,000 share of the settlement.

The County Commission is scheduled to vote on approving the settlement Sept. 18, said Mary-Anne Miller, the board's counsel in the Clark County district attorney's office.

The murder-suicide occurred two days before Christmas in 1997. Deputy Sheriff Tony Williams had served a temporary protection order about 9:20 a.m. on Ronnie Norman. The order had been sought by his wife, Judy Norman, a Metro Police corrections officer.

About three hours later, as Ronnie and Judy Norman argued, Judy Norman's two daughters saw their stepfather point a gun at their mother.

Judy Norman told the girls, then ages 11 and 7, to go in the other room and play. The older girl told police "she then heard gunfire" and "ran out of the bedroom and saw her mother and father on the floor," according to a Metro Police report.

Ronnie Norman had shot and killed Judy Norman, then killed himself.

Police came to the house on I Street near Washington Avenue, and found the court order on a coffee table next to Judy Norman's corrections officer badge near the family's Christmas tree.

"If the guy had done his job right, it may never have happened," said Lt. John Thornton, Metro's risk manager. "In settling a case, we look at what, if anything, we did wrong. This guy didn't do his job."

Williams was fired in February 1998 for neglect of duty.

Williams told investigators he knew he was supposed to make Ronnie Norman leave the house after being served with the protection order, but "he thought that because she was an officer of the law from the detention center, that everything was under control," the report states.

Williams also said he knew he was required to take the weapons of security guards when they are served with restraining orders. He said he did not take Ronnie Norman's gun and that he was aware that Norman was a security guard, the report states.

Ronnie Norman had threatened his wife several times, especially when she mentioned divorce. He told her, "I will not walk away from this relationship," according to the report.

Judy Norman was also afraid of what he might do, saying at one point, "He will put me six feet under first, and the only two people to suffer will be my children," the report states.

In a lawsuit filed for the two girls against Clark County and Metro Police, attorney Cal Potter contended there was "an atmosphere of lawlessness" within the civil division that let deputies "illegally and intentionally deprive victims of protection."

Deputy sheriffs are Clark County employees who serve various civil orders, such as temporary protection orders, also known as restraining orders. The deputy sheriffs are supervised by Metro's correction division, but are not police or corrections officers, Deputy Chief Greg Jolley of Metro's detention services division said.

After the murder-suicide, Metro increased the direct supervision of the sheriff's deputies, Jolley said.

There are currently seven deputy sheriffs supervised by two corrections sergeants and a lieutenant. Each month the sheriff's deputies have about 450 temporary protections orders to serve, he said.

Judy Norman's mother became the guardian of the two girls.