FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A nasty legal dispute with the most seriously injured survivor 2018 Parkland High School massacre and some of their families 17 murdered victims An agreement was reached on Monday, and all parties now have an equal share of the killer’s publicity rights and revenue.

Families of slain students Meadow Pollack, Luke Hoyer and Alaina Petty, and fellow surviving student Maddy Wilford now control hitman Nikolas Cruz’s attempts to profit from his name or likeness, according to the agreement signed by Circuit Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips and survivor Anthony Borges. . or give interviews. Each of the five parties has veto power.

They would also split the $400,000 annual income that Cruz’s late mother left him, if he received it. The victims’ families and Wilford said they would donate their share to charity. Borges’ lawyer, Alex Arreaza, said his client needs money for future medical expenses.

The agreement was reached a day before the parties were scheduled to argue before Phillips about whether an agreement could be reached. June agreement The case that 21-year-old Borges and his family met with Cruz should be thrown out. This would allow Borges to claim Cruz’s name and image and approve the interviews and annual income he could give. Cruz shot the once promising football star five times in the torso and legs, nearly bleeding to death. He had many surgeries.

Lawyers for Wilford, who was shot four times, and the families of Pollack, Hoyer and Petty immediately responded with their own defense. $190 million settlement With Cruz, who they admit they will never get.

They said the Borges deal caught them off guard, saying there was a verbal agreement to work together on their case against Cruz. Other victims’ families and survivors chose not to be a part of this case.

“The purpose of the (Borges) agreement was to prevent Cruz from testifying. This is now shared with other parents. This has never been an issue,” Arreaza said in a statement.

David Brill, the lead attorney for the families and Wilford, said Arreaza and the Borges family “surrendered.” He emphasized that the five victims and families at the settlement now have a say in whether Cruz, not just Borges, will speak publicly.

“This agreed order fully confirms the attitude with which the Borgeses and their lawyer, Alex Arreaza, have shamelessly denigrated us,” Brill said in a statement.

The fight was reported to the public September hearing Both sides accused the other of lying. At one point, an exasperated Phillips compared their argument to what he admitted was a contentious divorce. He called on the parties to reach a compromise.

The hostility began during negotiations over how to split a $25 million settlement reached in 2021 with Broward County schools. The families of the 17 people who were killed insisted that Borges receive $1 less than they were owed in order to acknowledge that they had suffered the greatest loss.

Arreaza believed that Borges deserved $5 million from this pot because he would incur medical expenses throughout his life. This resulted in his client being kicked out of the group after he refused to budge. The fight continued during negotiations over a $127 million settlement that families and surviving victims reached with the FBI over its failure to investigate a report that Cruz was planning a mass shooting. The Borgeses eventually reached their settlement.

Families of all victims, survivors and others suffering mental distress from the attack are still a pending case against Scot Peterson, a Broward County sheriff’s deputy assigned to the school. They say he failed to go after Cruz during his six-minute tantrum. Peterson He was acquitted of the charges last year. Charges were also filed against the sheriff’s office and two former school security guards.

A hearing date has not been set for this case.

Cruz, 26, pleaded guilty to the 2021 shooting. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2022 after a jury spared him the death penalty.