911 lawsuit settled for $685k

Murder-suicide prompted policy change

Created On: Tuesday, 27 Jan 2009, 1:46 PM EST

·         Reporter: Kim Holland

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The city of Albuquerque has agreed to pay the family of a woman who was killed by her ex-boyfriend $685,000 after the family said the city didn’t respond to her friends’ calls for help.

The city has also changed the policy for dispatching calls.

Randi Regensberg was inside her ex-boyfriend’s house on July 7, 2006, to collect some belongings when a neighbor said she saw Cory Kotrba pull Regensberg by her hair into the house.

Her friends waiting outside the house called 911 four times for help, but officers didn’t respond. An hour and 36 minutes later, they heard gunshots.

Albuquerque police arrived and found Regensberg and her unborn baby dead. She had been shot three times. Kotrba was also dead of a self-inflicted gunshot.

Regensberg’s family filed a lawsuit against the City of Albuquerque, Police Chief Ray Schultz, several 911 dispatchers and Kotrba’s estate.

The parties finalized a settlement in the lawsuit on Monday.

With the settlement, the city does not admit guilt. An attorney for the city says the settlement is fair.

The city also changed its dispatching policy soon after the shooting. It now prioritizes calls as urgent even when the caller has second hand information of a potentially serious crime.