WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Sedgwick County has agreed to pay $20,000 to settle a lawsuit that alleged a deputy was at fault in a police pursuit that killed two men from the south-central Kansas town of Haysville.
The Wichita Eagle reports that the lawsuit was filed last year by the estate of Beau Blake. He was a 25-year-old passenger in a fleeing Camero that collided with a soybean truck in 2009. The car’s 19-year-old driver, Colton Emerson, also died.
The lawsuit named commissioners and the pursuing deputy. It said the deputy violated policy by not using emergency lights and driving in an “unsafe and dangerous manner” that caused Emerson to drive unsafely.
A trial had been scheduled for September. But the county says it was cheaper to settle than try the lawsuit.
