Congratulations to Allan Larson and Heather White

Congratulations! to my partners, Al Larson and Heather White obtained a defense verdict in a widely covered case involving a car accident following a terminated high speed police chase in Ogden, Utah.  The case involved police pursuit in December 2005 by Ogden City Police of Eddie Bustos, a man wanted for multiple traffic violations and suspected DUI.  The pursuit occurred around 3:00 a.m. but lasted less than a minute when the police terminated pursuit a block and a half before Bustos continued on running a red light at 24^th and Grant in Ogden and hit a car instantly killing its driver, Jessica Nelson, and its passenger, Philemon Ellis.

The wrongful death lawsuit asserted that “the officer was negligent in initiating, continuing, and terminating the pursuit”.  Al and Heather successfully argued that the City was not at fault and the accident was caused by the fleeing driver, who is currently serving a prison term for the accident.  The jury agreed.  Although I was not present, I hear Al was great as usual and Heather did a fine job crossing the plaintiff’s evasive expert.  She also crossed the grieving family members, and fielded untold motions from plaintiff’s counsel, Bob Sykes.  Scott Young, an associate, did a great deal of briefing as well.  A great team effort.  Again, Congratulations!

If you know of some good lawyering that should be publicly recognized, send me an email and we’ll get it posted.

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