Posted on 08/12/2003 11:03:16 AM PDT by bedolido
Two years ago, Deloris Roberts' son died in a controversial police shooting in the Central District.
Now Gregory Neubert, one of the Seattle officers involved in the incident, is suing her, contending that he was injured when her son dragged him alongside a car.
Roberts, who was served with the suit this week, said Neubert's claims against her and the state of Washington have only brought back her anger and pain.
"He wants me to pay for the murder of my son," she said yesterday. "I have never, in all my days, heard of anything like this. It just brings it all back."
Aaron Roberts was driving his mother's Cadillac on May 31, 2001, the night he allegedly grabbed Neubert's wrist and began driving away. Neubert's partner, Craig Price, scrambled to catch up, drew his gun and stopped Roberts, 37, with one fatal shot.
The shooting was deemed justified. A formal inquest jury sided unanimously with the officers, finding that Roberts was a wanted felon who was high on drugs and posed a danger.
Yesterday, Neubert's attorney, Susan Sampson, said the lawsuit wasn't in any way intended to punish Deloris Roberts or worsen her grief.
"It's intended to recover compensation for the party that was injured by the automobile," she said. "She is the owner of the car."
Neubert first made a claim against Deloris Roberts' car-insurance company, which denied any responsibility. The lawsuit alleges negligence -- that she shouldn't have trusted her son with her car.
Sampson said Neubert suffered "symptoms from back sprain and strain" from being dragged and falling from the vehicle. He is seeking unspecified damages, including an amount for pain and suffering.
Neubert, who declined to comment through his attorney, is also suing the state Department of Corrections. Aaron Roberts had walked away from a work-release program, and Sampson said "the DOC apparently made no apparent effort whatsoever" to bring him back.
According to a claim he filed against the state in 2001, Neubert's medical bills were about $8,000 over four months, and the injuries cost him more than $12,000 in lost work time, overtime and pay from extra jobs he'd picked up in his off-duty hours. The claim, which had to be filed before he could sue the state, asked for $150,000.
Yesterday, a spokesman for the state Attorney General's Office, which handles claims against state agencies, said it was too early to comment on the lawsuit.
Attorney Doug Wilson, who represented the Roberts family in the 2001 King County District Court inquest, said he doesn't think Neubert had any valid legal grounds to go after Roberts' mother.
In some police shootings, the family of the person who was killed will sue the police. It's not usually the other way around, Wilson said.
Deloris Roberts said she hasn't made any kind of claim against the city and hadn't planned to. She also doesn't believe that Neubert was hurt.
"For her to have to go through this is absolutely horrible," Wilson said.
Deloris Roberts said it's just one more thing to deal with during what has been a devastating couple of years. She's been struggling with a more recent tragedy than her son's death -- the death of her grandson, Aaron Roberts Jr., 18, who ended his own life with a handgun June 29.
"Most people can't even imagine something like this," she said. "It's unreal."
The lawsuit isn't the first that Neubert has filed in the wake of the 2001 Central District shooting. He also sued for defamation after a Seattle defense lawyer publicly doubted his truthfulness, alleging that he had lied on the witness stand when testifying against one of her clients.
A King County Superior Court judge dismissed that lawsuit in June.
Ooh yeah. Real tough guy.
Good for him??? This guy and his attorney are a-holes.
Without commenting on the merits of the lawsuit, all I can say is nice shot. As for your comment, it was actually his partner doing the shot but aside from that, I'm curious, do you have a problem with the cops actions?
None whatsoever. If she were the perp, I would applaud his efforts to recover his losses. But she wasn't even on the scene.
It happens.
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