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CITY WILL PAY ADAMS' WIDOW IN SETTLEMENT

LEBANON -- The city of Lebanon will pay at least $400,000 to the wife of an elderly man killed when police raided the wrong house.

In the settlement made public recently, Lorine Adams, 72, has received $200,000 in a lump sum and will receive $1,675 per month for life, or for at least 10 years, whichever is longer.  If she should die before the 10 years is up, the balance would go to her beneficiary.

Her husband, John Adams, 62, was shot to death when Lebanon police wrongly burst into the Adams' home in a 2000 drug raid.  The officers had intended to raid the house next door.

Thinking his home was being robbed, John Adams fired a shotgun at the officers before they shot and killed him.  Police Lt.  Steve Nokes, head of Lebanon's narcotics unit, was fired for supervising the raid, but was later acquitted on related criminal charges.

The guaranteed payout over 10 years would be $201,000, according to the mediation settlement, and over 15 years it would be $301,500, all to be paid by the city's insurance carrier.

The settlement agreement also shows that Lebanon paid John Adams' medical bills of $45,000 and his funeral expenses of $5,804.

The documents were made public after The Tennessean newspaper sued under the state's public records law.  The city and the widow had made a confidentiality agreement as part of the financial settlement.