LEBANON TO PAY WIDOW OF RAID VICTIM $400,000

NASHVILLE -- 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 Wednesday, 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.