Teen files suit in fatal wreck

A Columbia Falls teen has filed a lawsuit against the City of Columbia Falls, Columbia Falls Police Department, and Columbia Falls police officer Mike Johnson due to injuries sustained in a crash that ended a high-speed pursuit in June 2015.

Joshua Sauls, who was 16 at the time of the wreck, is suing for “past, present and future costs and suffering to be determined at trial,” at a minimum of $3 million.

Sauls and one other 18-year-old passenger were injured in the crash, while the driver of the vehicle, Pierce Norman Beach, 15, was killed. The three youths were involved in a high-speed chase that started in Columbia Falls and ended in Hungry Horse on a Frontage Road along the South Fork of the Flathead, when Beach failed to make a hair-pin turn, went off the bank and into the trees.

The complaint, filed by Eureka Attorney Marshall M. Myers on Dec. 5, claims that Johnson didn’t have probable cause to pursue the vehicle in the first place.

The suit claims that Johnson followed the pickup driven by Beach in an adjacent lane in Columbia Falls and when Beach made a legal turn and proceeded slowly, Johnson almost immediately turned to follow, turning on the lights of his squad car to initiate the traffic stop.

According to the lawsuit, Johnson had previously stated that his probable cause for initiating the traffic stop was that the passenger side brake light on Beach’s truck would flicker a little.

Beach, according to the complaint, failed to stop, at which time Johnson initiated the pursuit.

Beach was killed in the pursuit, and the complaint states that Sauls sustained “life threatening disability injuries.” The suit alleges that the police car video camera showed the lights weren’t flickering.

But Sauls admits in the complaint that Beach’s failure to stop was also a contributing factor.