SOUTHFIELD, Mich. – The city of Southfield has agreed to pay $3.25 million to settle a lawsuit with the mother of Timesha Beauchamp, who was wrongly declared dead by paramedics in 2020.
The settlement comes more than five and a half years after the incident that drew national attention when Beauchamp, who lived with cerebral palsy, was discovered alive at a funeral home hours after being pronounced dead by Southfield EMS.
“It’s mostly relief that this long process has finally resulted in justice for her family,” said Steven Hurbis, attorney for Erica Lattimore, Beauchamp’s mother.
The case faced numerous delays before reaching a resolution.
In October 2025, Lattimore and her legal team accused the city of using procedural tactics to prevent the case from going to trial.
“I just take one day at a time, pray that God continues to give me the strength that I need to get through this because I am not giving up,” Lattimore said during an October 2025 press conference.
Hurbis believes Lattimore’s public appeal helped move the case forward.
“I really, truly think that Erica’s impassioned plea to the community, explaining what she had been through, what the family had been through, why she was fighting this fight, and what Tamisha had meant to their family, really is something that started pushing things forward,” Hurbis said.
Beauchamp passed away in October 2020, approximately two months after the incident.
In a statement, the city of Southfield said: “We recognize that no resolution can undo the profound tragedy that occurred on August 23, 2020, or ease the pain experienced by Ms. Beauchamp’s family.”
The city noted that the case involved “extraordinarily difficult circumstances that arose in the complex world of a global pandemic.”
The statement added that the city “remains committed to providing the highest quality of emergency medical services to our community and hopes this settlement allows all parties to move forward.”