Hardin County Sheriff Jon Ward's office "was trying to hide from the public that it spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of public money to address officer wrongdoing," according to First Amendment Attorney Mike Abate.
The family of Leslie Starnes filed the lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court.
The suit claimed Officer Roger Marcum improperly participated in a high-speed chase on Dec. 22 2018 of a stolen SUV on Fern Valley Road, "slamming his cruiser into the SUV," causing the "violent crash."
While on the way to the hospital and "while completely restrained," Mariah Reed gave birth, the suit claimed. Around two hours later the child died at the hospital.
The suit charges, among other things, that LMPD failed to investigate the incident properly, that the bar failed to investigate Wright’s prior violence before hiring him and that Wright and others committed battery against the victim.
The transcripts of the recordings in a wrongful death lawsuit threaten to tarnish not only Larry Franklin’s significant legacy, but that of the attorney who took over the civil case when he died, Ann Oldfather.
