Late-Brooklyn DA’s family gets $1.15 million settlement in his cancer death

The family of late-Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson will receive $1.15 million dollars in a settlement with the doctor who treated the cancer-afflicted prosecutor before his 2016 death, the Daily News has learned.

Thompson’s widow, Lu-Shawn Thompson, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2018 on behalf of her husband, claiming his “entirely preventable” passing was due to the failure of Dr. Arthur Kornbluth to “timely diagnose his colorectal cancer, which ultimately spread to his brain and the rest of his body.”

More than four years later, the family has settled for more than $1 million in Brooklyn Surrogate’s Court with Kornbluth, according to court papers. A judge approved the settlement on Jan. 3.

“It doesn’t bring him back and it’s not enough,” Lu-Shawn Thompson told the Daily News. “I don’t think any dollar amount will ever be enough. But this is one piece of my life that’s over with. I can move on from this now.”

“But I don’t think you can print everything I really want to say,” she added.

Just under $850,000 of the funds secured in the settlement will go to Lu-Shawn Thompson and the couple’s two teenage children, while more than $250,000 will go to their lawyer, Jordan Merson, according to court papers.

Kornbluth is affiliated with Mount Sinai Health System.

Thompson, who died at age 50, took over the Brooklyn DA’s Office in 2014 after mounting a successful primary challenge against longtime DA Charles Hynes.

Brooklyn’s first Black top prosecutor, Thompson moved his office to stop prosecuting low-level marijuana arrests and also reinvigorated the borough’s conviction review unit, which helped exonerate 21 people while he was the DA.

Before he was elected district attorney, Thompson worked as a federal prosecutor in Brooklyn and was part of the team that prosecuted former NYPD Office Justin Volpe for the 1997 beating and sexual torture of Abner Louima in the 70th Precinct stationhouse.

Thompson served as the DA until Oct. 4, 2016, when he announced he was battling cancer. Just five days later, he was dead.

“He did everything his doctors asked of him and yet he died because his doctors did not comport with accepted medical practice,” Lu-Shawn Thompson’s attorney’s wrote in the 2018 suit. “Thompson was abruptly and unexpectedly taken from all of us and today, his family seeks redress for what they have lost.”

Thompson named his chief assistant, Eric Gonzalez, as acting DA. Gonzalez has led the office since.

Kornbluth’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.