Third suit filed in fatal chase

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- The city of Chaffee is now facing a third civil suit filed on behalf of people injured or killed in a fatal September accident that resulted from a high-speed police pursuit.

Daniel Moore's family filed the suit June 4 in Cape Girardeau County seeking damages for the medical cost and physical and mental hardship Moore and his family have endured since the accident.

Moore was injured in a Sept. 23 crash after Chaffee policeman James Backfisch pursued a car Moore was riding in, driven by 19-year-old Garrett Williams of Allenville. The chase started after Backfisch saw Williams run a stop sign in Chaffee and continued on highways and county roads in Scott and Cape Girardeau counties, during which Williams exceeded speeds of 100 mph down curvy roads, some of them gravel.

Williams overturned on Route U and was killed, along with 46-year-old Debra Johnson of Delta. Moore, 20, and Betina Ott, 23, of Chaffee both survived the crash. Moore suffered severe head injuries that resulted in brain damage and is now being cared for at an assisted living facility, said his grandmother and co-guardian Joyce Moore. Daniel Moore can't eat on his own or control his bodily and motor functions. He's responsive but can't communicate.

Ott is paralyzed from the neck down but is starting to regain some limited movement in her arms, said her mother, Robin Patterson.

With the filing of Moore's suit, only Williams' family has not sought damages from the city of Chaffee and Backfisch, who resigned from the department and moved to Illinois in March.

"Daniel was a victim in this, too," said Joyce Moore.

Ott's suit was filed in December, and Johnson's family filed suit in January.

Joyce Moore said the reason for the delay in filing Daniel's case was due to the need to resolve Daniel's guardianship, which is shared by her and Daniel's mother, Lisa Sizemore of East Prairie, Mo.

Cape Girardeau attorneys David Mark Remley and Daniel A. Statler are representing the families in the three cases. Remley declined to comment on the cases, saying "I'm not going to discuss this in the press."

Chaffee is being represented by St. Louis attorney Keith Henson, who declined to discuss Chaffee's defense. Henson did say the filing of the third suit is "not surprising".

Joyce Moore said her family isn't concerned as much about money as seeing some sort of justice done in the case. Backfisch faced no criminal charges after an investigation by the Scott County Sheriff's Department cleared him of criminal wrongdoing, finding he had followed city and state procedures for high-speed chases.

Joyce Moore, who listened to the chase and ensuing crash on her personal police-band scanner, said she doesn't think her grandson and his friends were completely innocent, but Backfisch should have exercised better judgment.

"We still feel like something should be done about the police officer," Joyce Moore said. "If nothing else I think he should have to go look at Daniel every day and see what he caused. If not every day, once a month."

Her grandson had no choice to leave the car once the pursuit began, Joyce Moore said.

Patterson said she's confident Ott will win damages in her lawsuit. Patterson said there's been some question how an April U.S. Supreme Court case, which found police could use deadly force to stop a high-speed chase without threat of lawsuit, could affect the case, but she's not worried about the effect on Ott's case.

In the Supreme Court case police rammed a Georgia teen's car to stop a high-speed pursuit. In the Chaffee case, no such tactics were used, as Williams' car ran off the road without being forced off.

Patterson and Joyce Moore both say their families have racked up huge medical bills that will only grow as Ott and Daniel Moore will require more care in the future. Ott has two children, 1 and 2 years old, that must also be cared for. And both express optimism that their family members' conditions will continue to improve beyond doctors' expectations.

msanders@semissourian.com

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