BATON ROUGE - The East Baton Rouge Metro Council has rejected a proposed $5 million settlement in the wrongful death civil lawsuit against the city and other parties filed on behalf of Alton Sterling's children.

The proposal needed the support of seven council members to pass but only cleared six.

Chauna Banks, LaMont Cole, Erika Green, Donna Collins-Lewis, Chandler Loupe, and Tara Wicker voted in favor of the settlement.

Five council members voted against the settlement, including Denise Amoroso, Dwight Hudson, Jen Racca, Matt Watson, and Scott Wilson. Trae Welch was not in attendance.

The decision will move the case to trial in March of 2021 unless the upcoming Metro Council, with several newly-elected members, decides to offer a settlement instead.

During the council meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 4, a new measure was up for consideration, proposing the city-parish to pay out the settlement in increments of $1 million over a five year period. 

The first million would be allocated from the city-parish's Insurance Reserve Funds. Future payments could come from elsewhere in the budget. 

The Metro Council was forced to review the $5 million settlement after previously failing in early September because of one unread email lost in a spam folder. The city-parish could not move forward without reading all public comments, and with one email missed that was not read into the public record, the council's initial decision became invalid.