The family of a Salem man who was fatally shot by a state trooper on June 18, 2013, will receive a settlement of $950,000 from the State of Connecticut under an agreement that was finalized Thursday in U.S. District Court.

The wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of Robert Bergeson was headed for trial in January but was resolved following four months of mediation before U.S. Magistrate Joan G. Margolis, according to New London attorney Robert I. Reardon Jr., whose firm represented Bergeson's estate.

Bergeson, a 60-year-old Pfizer Inc. retiree distraught about his recent divorce, was shot and killed by state Trooper Patrick Hawes after Bergeson set fire to his home at 28 Witter Road in Salem and went to a nearby field to watch it burn. Hawes, who had heard reports of shots being fired before he arrived at the scene, said he shot Bergeson after Bergeson lunged at him with a stick. The state police and the New London State's Attorney's office ruled that the shooting was justified. Hawes was immediately returned to duty.

Reardon said his firm hired several experts who concluded that there was sufficient time for Hawes, who was about 30 feet away from Bergeson, to stop pulling the trigger.

"This is a classic case where de-escalation of an emotionally upset person when confronted with police is the proper procedure," Reardon said in a phone interview. "De-escalation is the way you have to deal with a person who is unarmed and emotionally upset."

Reardon said three people recorded the incident on their cellphones and that forensic enhancement of one of the videos supported the conclusion of pathologist Michael Baden, who analyzed for the Reardon firm the placement of the four shots that were fired by Hawes.

The first shot missed Bergeson while he was facing Hawes and refusing the trooper's commands to get down on the ground, according to Reardon. The second shot grazed Bergeson across the front of his chest as he began to turn away from Hawes. The third shot hit him in the back of his arm after Bergeson had turned away and the fourth bullet struck him in the back and exited his chest as he attempted to run away, according to Reardon. The fourth shot severed a major artery and was fatal, according to Reardon.

The state police had hired forensic expert William Lewinski, who had suggested that once Hawes started shooting, he didn't have time to determine if Bergeson was running away and that the stick constituted a deadly weapon, according to Reardon. Two professors consulted by the Reardon firm concluded that Hawes and his partner had ample opportunity and an obligation to de-escalate the situation, Reardon said.

Hawes was a seven-year veteran of the state police at the time of the shooting with a clean personnel record and up-to-date firearms training.

"This is a civil judgment," said New London State's Attorney Michael L. Regan, whose office investigated the shooting and found Hawes was justified. "There's a different burden of proof, different standard. We would have had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the trooper violated one of the penal statutes, and we would have to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt, any claim of self-defense by state police."

Bergeson was survived by two adult children, according to Reardon, who he said were pleased "that the facts established by the Reardon firm proved that Bergeson should never have been shot and killed by the police."

The state investigation had determined that Bergeson was standing in the field yelling obscenities and failed to comply with Hawes' commands and advanced in an aggressive and threatening manner toward Hawes and Trooper Kristin Coit with a piece of wood. The troopers had been told that Hawes might have a gun.

The piece of wood, recovered in the blood-stained grass during the investigation of the shooting, was approximately 2 inches wide and 23 inches long, according to the report.

"As Bergeson closed the distance between himself and the troopers, Trooper Hawes, in that split second, reasonably believed he had no other alternative but to use deadly force," Regan wrote in the report. "The use of deadly force was, therefore, appropriate."

The other trooper did not fire her weapon, according to the report.

Bergeson had once served as a constable in Salem and was well-known by police, according to Reardon. His divorce had been finalized about a month before the shooting. He was distraught because his ex-wife, Gale Bergeson, was to receive 60 percent of the proceeds from the sale of the log cabin, which Bergeson had built himself, and 60 percent of his 401k retirement plan, according to Reardon.

Gale Bergeson had alleged in the divorce that Bergeson was abusive throughout their 25 years of marriage, according to court documents. According to witnesses, he had told his ex-wife he would burn the house down before she received it. Bergeson had been arrested four times for domestic violence incidents and had been released from prison 12 days before the June 18 shooting after serving 30 days for second-degree harassment.

In September 2012, troopers had been dispatched to the home for a domestic assault. Bergeson had told police at the time that they should send emergency medical services to the home because he was going to kill the victim, according to court documents.

Fire investigators said they found evidence that Bergeson had set fire to the home and detached three-car garage and had parked vehicles and a farm tractor to block responders from accessing the scene.

Firefighters arriving at the scene reported seeing a man in a nearby field yelling and waving a gun. 

 k.florin@theday.com

The following video includes footage that some viewers may find disturbing.

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