Colin Hortman pushes for change after insurance headaches following parents' killing
On top of grieving the sudden, tragic loss of his parents, Colin Hortman told Minnesota lawmakers Thursday that the clean-up of his childhood home after the murder of his parents — House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and Mark Hortman — was a prolonged process that only made matters worse.
He hopes a proposal that is advancing at the State Capitol will make it easier for other families who may find themselves in a similar situation in the future.
In the House Commerce committee, Colin Hortman testified that law enforcement who responded to his parent's Brooklyn Park home the night they were killed last June deployed tear gas and other chemical irritants when they thought the accused assassin was still inside.
That left significant damage that would require more extensive remediation, not just basic cleaning. Colin Hortman shared getting that done was a lot harder than he thought and took months to resolve.
He went back-and-forth between homeowner's insurance and the city's insurance, which under state law covers property damage involving police officers' actions in the line of duty, to sort out the scope of the work. Only last month — eight months after their deaths— was his parents' home fully fixed.
"The part that concerns me most is that my family had resources that most people do not have," Colin Hortman said. "We had attorneys helping us because of the criminal case. We had connections in the state government. We had the ability to wait months for testing reports and negotiations. Even with all of that, the process felt extremely slow, confusing and difficult to understand."
A bill he supports would make tweaks to state law in order streamline the process of working insurance if law enforcement did any property damage while making an arrest or issuing a warrant. And it would clarify what clean-up work is covered to ensure a home is safe again.
A separate measure would require police officers to disclose what chemical agents they use in a building.
"This was my childhood home and after my parents died, there were things that I wanted to do there as part of my grieving and healing process that had to be put on hold for months while we argued over what the insurance company would pay for. That weight came on top of everything else our family was dealing with," he said. "Fighting over whether basic cleaning was good enough when the industry standard was clearly more thorough made an already painful situation even harder."
DFL Rep. Kelly Moller said Colin put the issue on her radar and prompted the drafting of legislation.
"Now obviously they figured it out for them, but in true Hortman fashion, want to make the situation better for other victims who are traumatized," Moller said.
Colin Hortman only recently began speaking publicly about his parents since their tragic deaths rocked the state. He told WCCO in an interview last month that he is still figuring out the best way to honor their memory.
The Minnesota House is leaving a tribute at the late speaker emerita's desk all session. The chamber unanimously passed a bill to rename a community solar program she championed in her honor later Thursday.