Once the issues have been settled, Wagner said he expects there will be a round of negotiations supervised by a U.S. magistrate judge. If the case is not resolved, it will be set for trial, he said.

An earlier attempt to settle the case through mediation failed.

Wagner said he thought one of reasons for the unsuccessful mediation was that the county thought it had a good chance of succeeding on the issue of qualified immunity.

Wagner also said he expects that Watters’ ruling against the county will affect the negotiating positions of the parties.

Watters said a review of the facts, including a dash camera video, suggest that “it was not objectively reasonable for the deputies to believe that Simpson was accelerating and driving the Explorer toward Robinson or to keep firing at the Explorer after it passed.”

Watters also said, “In sum, the force used by the deputies was severe, the crime they suspected Simpson had committed was minor, the danger to the deputies was minimal, and the deputies could have used less intrusive means to effect the investigative stop.”