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The family of a Frederick man who died after being subdued with a Taser has filed a $145 million lawsuit against Frederick County and the county sheriff's office.
The family made the announcement at a Thursday news conference with their attorney, Ted Williams, and the Frederick County NAACP (web|news) . The lawsuit also names Sheriff Chuck Jenkins and Cpl. Rudy Torres as defendants.
"My life will never be the same. For 41 years, people would greet me, 'Hey, Jeff, how you doing?' Now they greet me as a parent who lost a child," said Gray's father, Jeffrey Gray. "I'm 41 years old and we have to live with this burden for the rest of our lives."
"I'm not going to just let it die because, you know, he's not here anymore," said Gray's mother, Tanya Thomas. "I think his name, it deserves to be out there and the situation needs to be out there, and we can maybe save somebody else's child."
A grand jury ruled this month that Torres was justified in using his Taser to subdue 20-year-old Jarrel Gray after Gray did not obey commands to show his hands during a fight last November. Gray was shocked twice and died three hours later.
An autopsy did not definitively link Gray's death to the Taser.
Attorney Ted Williams says the grand jury was not presented with all the evidence in the case. He says witnesses who were not invited to testify would have told the panel that the second shock was unnecessary.
"Because he didn't move fast enough, Torres Tased him one time," said Williams. "Mr. Gray fell to the ground unconscious. He did not move after that. And Torres waited 23 seconds and Tased him one additional time and he died as a result."
Gray's mother said she doesn't think prosecutors were looking for the truth and believes Torres had a vendetta against her son.
"Do I feel like they're covering up? Yes, I do. Do I think Torres thought he was going to prove a point and scare my son by tasing him and it went too far? Yes, I do," said Thomas.
Attorneys said the incident was clearly racially motivated. "When's the last time you heard of somebody in Georgetown in Washington, D.C. being Tased because they were supposedly not obeying a command," asked attorney Gregory Lattimer.
The Sheriff's Office declined to comment on the lawsuit.
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