photo by: Sara Shepherd

Danny W. Queen is handcuffed and escorted out of the courtroom by deputies on Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2018, after being found guilty of second-degree murder in the 2017 shooting death of Bo Hopson outside a Eudora bar. Queen's trial spanned eight days in Douglas County District Court. Queen's defense attorney Dakota Loomis is pictured at left.

A lawsuit brought by the family of a Eudora murder victim against his killer has been settled and dismissed.

According to Douglas County District Court records, the case was formally dismissed June 17. Defendant Danny W. Queen and plaintiff Scott Hopson jointly requested the dismissal after reaching a settlement in late April.

The terms of that settlement were not filed in court.

Hopson told the Journal-World after the case was settled that he would not comment on it. His attorney did not return messages at that time or last week.

Queen, 38, formerly of Eudora, is now in prison serving a nearly 19-year sentence for the murder of Hopson’s son Bo M. Hopson, 32, of Eudora, on June 24, 2017.

After a night of heavy drinking, Queen scuffled with patrons at D-Dubs Bar and Grill, 10 W. Ninth St. in Eudora. Outside, he pulled a gun from his pocket and shot Hopson, who was working security at the bar and had offered to help Queen find a ride home after he got kicked out.

Last summer a jury convicted Queen of second-degree murder for fatally shooting Hopson, as well as attempted second-degree murder and attempted voluntary manslaughter for trying to shoot two other bar patrons.

Scott Hopson, a former mayor of Eudora, filed the civil suit against Queen in October 2017, after Queen’s arrest but before his conviction.

Hopson’s suit alleged that Queen “willfully and maliciously” shot his son, resulting in his death.

Hopson’s suit sought damages in excess of $75,000 from Queen for “medical bills, pain and suffering, mental anguish, bereavement, loss of society, companionship, comfort and protection and reasonable funeral expenses and other damages.”

The lawsuit lists Hopson as special administrator of his son’s estate and as a representative of his heirs.

Queen did not have a lawyer for the civil case and hand-wrote nearly all his filings from the Douglas County Jail and, later, the Kansas Department of Corrections.

Prior to the murder, Queen had a full-time job and owned a home in Eudora.

After his arrest Queen was forced to put the house up for sale to avoid foreclosure, according to a judge’s order filed prior to the settlement. Against Queen’s arguments, the order said he waived his homestead rights earlier in the process by entering an escrow agreement allowing the title company to collect proceeds from the sale of his house and hold them until receiving written instructions from him and the plaintiff in the civil suit, or a final judgment by the court.

Meanwhile, Queen is appealing his criminal conviction.

His Kansas Court of Appeals case was opened shortly after his sentencing in January, but attorneys for Queen have not yet filed specific arguments.

According to an early filing, they anticipate arguing that there was insufficient evidence to convict him of the crimes beyond a reasonable doubt and that the county judge should have granted his motion for a new trial instead of sentencing him.