Crash victim’s family sues city, claims Memphis police didn’t follow procedures

Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

July 30--The family of an 80-year-old Memphis woman who was killed in a two-car crash last summer in Whitehaven is seeking $5 million in damages from the city claiming police and firefighters were negligent in their handling and investigation of the accident.

The federal lawsuit was filed July 15 in U.S. District Court of Western Tennessee by the six children of Lucille Grose.

Last year, three months after the death of their mother, Grose's children hired Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland's former law firm, Kustoff and Strickland, to file suit against the driver of the other car and their mother's insurance company, State Farm.

The firm is no longer representing Grose's family; her children are now representing themselves and filed the lawsuit adding the city as a defendant in the fatal crash.

On July 18, 2015, Lucille Grose was headed to Kroger to buy bread for her church's communion that Sunday, according to the lawsuit. She had pulled from a private driveway onto Shelby Drive in her 2000 Mazda when she was hit on the driver's side door by a Ford pickup headed west on Shelby Drive, according to the lawsuit and a police accident report.

She died on the scene.

The lawsuit alleges that police and firefighters did not follow standard policies and procedures in investigating the fatal crash by failing to obtain and record information, including witness names, addresses, phone numbers and cellphone recordings of the accident scene.

Although a DUI officer made the scene, the family alleges that "a decision was made by MPD not to do a field sobriety test for alcohol or drugs upon the defendant of this fatality to see if this was a factor or possibility of drugs and alcohol was a causation to this fatality."

In addition, the lawsuit alleges that a witness told police that the other driver was speeding and driving recklessly when he crashed into Grose's car. The lawsuit also alleges that a witness recorded the crash on their cellphone, but the video footage was not part of the investigation report.

"Vehicle 2 operated his vehicle in willful and wanton disregard of the safety of others upon the highway and streets of Memphis," the lawsuit says.

According to the police report, the other driver, Charles Stone was not issued a ticket in the crash. But police said in the report that Grose failed to yield when she pulled from a driveway onto Shelby Drive.

Grose's family alleges that Memphis police told them and their former attorneys, David Kustoff and Strickland, that the accident report was incomplete and there would be "another report from MPD that would be forthcoming," but to date the family has not received another report, according to the lawsuit.

"This information, investigation would be of benefit to timely discovery of the probate estate case now pending in the Circuit Court of Shelby County," the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit questions several other things, including if Memphis police did a thorough report on the accident. "MPD has been sued in the past 10 years for writing poor auto accident fatality reports, poor investigation of accident fatality reporting and falsifying and tampering with evidence in an automobile accident," the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit claims that the police department and the fire department failed to gather and collect critical evidence of the crash scene. The family said in the suit that they have been unable to collect damages from the other driver or from Grose's insurance company, State Farm.

Grose's family could not be reached for comment about the lawsuit. The city did not respond to emails sent to the city attorney's office and the public information office about the lawsuit.

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