Federal judge dismisses Boeing felony charges despite victims' families opposition to $1.1B settlement deal

A federal judge ruled in favor of the Department of Justice DOJ on Thursday dismissing felony charges against aircraft giant Boeing in relation to two commercial plane crashes that claimed the lives of people in Indonesia and Ethiopia Judge Reed O Connor accepted the DOJ's motion to dismiss in the Northern District of Texas Boeing which previously agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to defraud the cabinet made a deal with the Trump administration in May in return for the charges tied to the Boeing MAX crashes in October and March being dropped O Connor who was appointed by former President George W Bush mentioned that despite selected victims' families' opposition the cabinet did not act with bad faith provided conclusory reasons for its dismissal and satisfied its obligations under the Crime Casualties Rights Act Politico stated The non-prosecution agreement requires Boeing to pay more than billion in fines more than million to strengthen the company s compliance safety and quality programs and an additional million for the crash casualties families a DOJ spokesperson explained Fox News Digital BOEING PAYING B AS DOJ DISMISSES CRIMINAL FRAUD SCENARIO FAMILIES OF CASUALTIES IN CRASHES SET TO OBJECT TO DEAL On top of the financial investments Boeing must continue to improve the effectiveness of its anti-fraud compliance and ethics plan and retain an independent compliance consultant the spokesperson wrote in a message to Fox News Digital O'Connor noted it disregards the need for the company to be monitored by an unbiased consultant as Boeing can choose who it hires and commented he understood families may be disappointed the agreement fails to secure the necessary accountability to ensure the safety of the flying populace according to the assessment Tracy Brammeier partner of Clifford Law Offices who serves on the plaintiff's squad disclosed there would be a quick appeal of O'Connor's Thursday ruling The judge recognizes there is a miscarriage of justice on the part of the government's decision not to prosecute the matter and that this was not in the best interest of the masses which the cabinet serves Brammeier wrote in a declaration to Fox News Digital Unfortunately he feels the power to right this wrong is limited by legal precedent The families are disappointed by the outcome but will act expeditiously to protect the interests of the families and the community on appeal NTSB ISSUES URGENT SAFETY BULLETIN ABOUT ENGINES ASCERTAINED IN A FEW BOEING MAX JETSThree cases involving families of casualties in the crash were settled Wednesday after jury selection including a occurrence on behalf of a -year-old mother from Kenya who left behind a daughter and her parents Clifford Law Offices wrote in a news release The other two cases that settled were that of a -year-old father of seven from Yemen and Kenya and a -year-old father of three from the UK and Kenya who left behind a pregnant wife according to Clifford Law Offices Flight ET- crashed in March shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport in Ethiopia heading to Kenya and killing all on board According to the attorneys nearly a dozen cases related to the two crashes remain unresolved A DOJ spokesperson stated Fox News Digital casualties are at the heart of the Department s mission and the Boeing circumstance is no exception Rather than allow for protracted litigation this agreement provides finality for the sufferers and requires Boeing to act now the spokesperson wrote in a message As the Court recognized the Department in good faith complied with its statutory obligations and met extensively with the crash casualties families While they are all experiencing grief and nothing will diminish their losses the sufferers have expressed a broad set of views regarding the resolution ranging from sponsorship to disagreement Ultimately in applying the facts the law and Department program we are confident that this resolution is the majority of just outcome A Boeing spokesperson stated Fox News Digital the company is committed to honoring the obligations of our agreement with the Department of Justice and to continuing the notable efforts we have made as a company to strengthen our safety quality and compliance programs