Chris Dickerson of the West Virginia Record reports that the family of Angela Marie Born has filed a federal lawsuit alleging police officers caused the fatal accident in which Born died last month in an I-64 accident in Putnam County.
The complaint was filed in federal court in Huntington on April 10 against the Putnam County Commission, Putnam County Sheriff’s Deputy C. Ford, the City of Hurricane and unnamed Putnam County and Hurricane officers.
Angela Born died on March 5 when her automobile exploded after being slammed by a vehicle driven by Joseph Ryan Elswick, who was engaged in a high-speed chase with Putnam County and Hurricane officers.
The complaint states that an extended vehicular pursuit turned into a high-speed chase along country roads and secondary routes through Putnam and Cabell counties in absence of extraordinary circumstances or a public danger. The complaint states that police officers from the City of Hurricane activated spike strips during a time of heavy traffic. The complaint further states Elswick weaved in and out of the bumper-to-bumper traffic to avoid the spike strips and crashed into the back end of Born’s vehicle, causing it to cross two lanes of traffic and into the median where it burst into flames.. Born died at the scene.
The complaint states that Deputy Ford began the pursuit of Elswick with flashing lights and sirens and continued when Elswick began driving more recklessly and at a higher speed. According to the complaint, Ford did not receive authorization from his supervisor to engage in the high-speed pursuit. The report states, “Ford possessed no information or reasonable suspicion that Elswick was involved in a violent crime or presented an imminent threat to the community.” The complaint further states, “The identity of the driver of the Jeep, Joseph Ryan Elswick, was known to the police and he could have been apprehended later, without any significant increase of risk to the community.”
The complaint states that Hurricane police officers did not clear or halt traffic on I-64 prior to activating the spike strips. The fatal crash occurred at 3:08, 23 minutes after initial pursuit at 2:45 p.m.
The complaint accuses Ford and the unknown officers of violating Angela Born’s due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment, and accuses unknown officers – particularly the supervisors – of bystander liability for choosing not to act and failing to halt the high-speed pursuit and the use of spike strips. All defendants have been accused of negligence. The Putnam County Commission and City of Hurricane are accused of negligent training, negligent supervision.
The estate seeks compensatory damages, general damages, punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interests, court costs, attorney fees and other relief.
The estate is being represented by diTrapano, Charles Bellomy, Amanda Davis and Timothy Houston of Calwell Luce diTrapano in Charleston and by Jesse Forbes, Jennifer Taylor and Michael Heidenrich of Forbes Law Offices in Charleston.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Robert C. “Chuck” Chambers.
