Nassau expects to settle with woman's kin

Nassau County anticipates settling a lawsuit alleging that police mishandled a domestic violence victim's pleas for help against her estranged boyfriend in the time before he stabbed her to death, a county spokeswoman said Thursday night.

The family of Jo'Anna Bird, who was tortured and killed by the estranged boyfriend, Leonardo Valdez-Cruz, filed a federal lawsuit of upward of $20 million in March 2010 against Nassau County. The suit alleged that Nassau police failed to protect the mother of two despite orders of protection against Valdez-Cruz.

"The settlement is not final, therefore we are not able to disclose any details at the present time," said county spokeswoman Katie Grilli-Robles. "However, we anticipate successfully achieving a settlement in this matter."

A call to Bird family attorney Fred Brewington, of Hempstead, was not answered Thursday night, but he told News 12 Long Island that he and the Bird family "are hopeful that the Bird children that remain after the tragic death of their mother will be able to soon put this behind them and look forward to a promising future."

On March 19, 2009, Valdez-Cruz stabbed Bird, 24, numerous times in her New Cassel home and fled the scene. He was later convicted of the slaying.

The family, led by Bird's mother Sharon Dorsett, also said that police waited too long before entering the crime scene and that Bird could have been saved had they intervened sooner.

In May 2009, then-Nassau Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey said that an internal investigation showed that seven officers, including a patrol supervisor, did not properly investigate at least four domestic violence visits to places where Bird was before she was killed.

The Police Department has never said what disciplinary action was taken against the officers.