The attorney who represented the City of Edmonds in the Debi Humann civil trial, which concluded with a jury verdict in Humann’s favor in U.S. District Court last Friday, said that it’s “too early to determine” if the city will appeal the verdict.

Jayne Freeman of Keating Bucklin & McCormack, which served as the city’s legal counsel during the three-week trial, said that the jury award of $1,035,351will be covered by the Washington Cities Insurance Authority, a self-insured municipal risk pool. That includes the verdict involving former Mayor Mike Cooper, whom the jury found defamed Humann for statements he made in the press following her firing.

“The judgment has not been entered yet,” said Jayne Freeman of Keating Bucklin & McCormack, which served as the city’s legal counsel during the three-week trial. After that occurs, a decision will be made on whether to file any post-trial motions regarding the jury verdict, she added.

The five-man, five woman jury found that Humann was wrongfully terminated in September 2011 for reporting misuse of public funds and was retaliated against for filing a complaint seeking her job back. The jury also found that then-Mayor Cooper defamed Humann for statements he made in the press following her firing. There had been two additional claims by Humann during the trial — one that the Edmonds City Council retaliated against Humann when it eliminated the Director of Human Resources position in November 2011, and the other that both the city and Cooper didn’t provide Humann due process for a name-clearing hearing == but Judge Marsha Pechman dismissed them before the case went to the jury.

The jury ended up awarding Humann a total of $1,035,351,which broke down this way:

$135,351 back pay

$400,000 economic damage

$250,000 impairment of reputation

$250,000 emotional distress related to defamation

“We’re disappointed in the large number. It was a high number to award,” said Freeman, although she also noted that the award was about half of the nearly $2.1 million that Humann’s attorneys had requested.

Cooper said that since the post-trial legal proceedings have not been completed, he isn’t yet ready to comment on the trial’s outcome. “I’ll make a statement at a later date,” he said.