Provo offers to settle in 911 error

PROVO — Provo city officials have offered a financial settlement to the family of a man who died waiting for medical help that never arrived because Provo dispatchers sent emergency crews to the wrong address.

The terms of the proposed settlement remain secret. Both camps — city officials and Scott Aston's family — declined to divulge details to the Deseret Morning News.

However, Aston's family, which has retained an attorney to guide them in their legal engagement with Provo government chiefs, said Provo leaders warned that the offer will be yanked if the city is targeted with a lawsuit.

City spokeswoman Raylene Ireland confirmed the city's offer is on the table until a lawsuit is filed — but she also said that settlement negotiations could be renewed afterward, too, if the city was so inclined.

The Astons, although they aren't entirely pleased with the amount offered by the city, worry because they don't want to jeopardize the offer made to Aston's widow, Josefina, a native of the Dominican Republic.

A lawsuit filed by the family would be about accountability — and a desire that Utah bulk up the technology used in dispatch centers, said Aston's sister, Kearns resident Carol Davis. "It's not about the money," she said. "We'd all rather be homeless and have Scott here."

Family members in Pennsylvania and California will fly to Utah to make an announcement next month. They plan to tell Provo residents that city officials won't release to them all of the reports and documents surrounding Aston's death.

The city also has refused a Deseret Morning News request to release the reports.

Davis said the quest for information forced the family to consider a lawsuit.

"They want the information," Davis said of her parents and siblings. "And the only way to get it is filing a suit."

Ireland insists the family already has the bulk of the information Provo has gathered and would learn little to nothing from unreleased documents.

"I think that we went into a great deal of specifics about the situation," Ireland said. "We rolled out as much information as we possibly could. I believe every issue of any significance in this situation has been made public."