A $10 million federal lawsuit has been filed by the son of a woman who drowned in the back seat of a Meigs County Sheriff's Office patrol car Feb. 14 after a deputy, who also drowned, inadvertently drove the vehicle into the Tennessee River.
The suit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Chattanooga seeks nominal, punitive, compensatory and presumed damages in the drowning death of Tabitha Marie Smith, the woman in the back of Meigs County Deputy Robert John "R.J." Leonard Jr.'s patrol car the night both lost their lives, according to federal court documents. The suit filed by Smith's adult son, Nathan Alexander Smith, names Meigs County government and Leonard as defendants.
Smith, 35, originally of Chicago, was the mother of four, including Nathan Smith and three minor siblings, according to her obituary and court documents. During a Feb. 15 news conference before Smith was named as the person in custody in the patrol car, District Attorney Russell Johnson said the woman found in the back seat of the patrol car was covered in mud. Leonard, who left behind a wife and five children, had recently moved to Meigs County from New York, officials at the news conference said.
According to the suit, Leonard, who had worked for the department for about two months at the time of the drowning, answered a disturbance call on the state Highway 60 bridge where he took Smith into custody, handcuffed and secured her in the back of his patrol car and left for the Meigs County Jail in Decatur. At some point before entering the river, Leonard sent a text to his wife that said, "arrest." Around the same time, Leonard also made a radio call to a county dispatcher and was believed to have said, "water."
Leonard's patrol car had run off the end of Blythe Ferry Road — once a ferry landing now used as a boat ramp — into the Tennessee River, the suit states. The location has a reputation as an area where other people have driven into the river in the past.
In a phone call, Meigs County Mayor Eddie Jewell said he just got a copy of the suit and hadn't reviewed it yet. He deferred questions to County Attorney Sheridan Randolph. No one answered a call to Randolph's office Tuesday, and a message seeking comment wasn't immediately returned.
Leonard's patrol car was found in the water during a scan by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, Johnson said during the news conference.
No other bodies were found in the car, and its front windows were down when the car was discovered, he said.
"It's plain to see that he (Leonard) made it out of the car," Hamilton County Sheriff Austin Garrett said during the news conference.
Leonard's phone was pinging from a location near the submerged car, Johnson said. The car was found upside down in the river near the boat ramp.
A dive team from the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office searched the river using sonar and a remote-controlled vehicle to determine the car found was Leonard's, Garrett said.
Johnson said there were some indications that Leonard tried to stop but couldn't.
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The suit contends Leonard, as a county deputy on official duty, should have been trained by the county to know his assigned area — including the area where the deadly incident happened — and to refrain from using his cellphone "while transporting an arrestee in a patrol vehicle."
The alleged failure to protect Smith, handcuffed in the locked back seat of the patrol car, while en route to the Sheriff's Office led to her "horrific death," the suit states.
The suit contends Leonard's alleged actions and failures to act violated Smith's constitutional rights under the 14th Amendment "to be free from the infliction of physical pain, suffering and death and to not be harmed by the defendants without due process of law," the suit states.
The county is accused of negligence in the deadly incident through what the lawsuit calls Leonard's lack of training.
In addition to the $10 million sought in nominal, punitive, compensatory and presumed damages, the suit also seeks an unspecified award under state law claims, court documents state.
In federal court, defendants typically have 21 days to respond to allegations.
Contact Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569.