Cop's Widow Wants More Than $5 Million Award

A day after winning a $5 million award in a civil-rights case, the widow of a Tennessee police officer slain by a colleague took the unusual step of asking the trial judge to refer the case to a criminal grand jury.

State prosecutors concluded in 2003 that the death of Scott County Sheriff's Sgt. Hubert "John-John" Yancey was accidental. He was shot by former Deputy Marty Carson during a raid on a suspected methamphetamine lab.

But last week, a federal jury in Knoxville, Tenn., found Carson liable for violating Yancey's right to life and awarded $5 million in damages to the sergeant's widow. And now Lori Yancey has filed a motion under a law which says federal crimes “may be brought to the attention of the grand jury by the court or by any attorney appearing on behalf of the United States.”

The civil verdict of liability against Carson “exceeds the probable cause standard for a criminal indictment,” the motion says. Lori Yancey wants him to be prosecuted for deprivation of rights under color of law.

John Yancey was shot Nov. 28, 2003 in a trailer home where he believed a meth lab was being operated. According to court testimony, two of the residents had been up doing meth for 20 straight days without sleep.

Carson testified he was approaching the back bedroom in the trailer when he saw through the partially open door the outline of a figure who appeared to be holding a gun. He then retreated into the bathroom and fired one shot at what he thought was a shotgun-wielding suspect advancing on him from the bedroom.

No one in the trailer was armed and Lori Yancey originally alleged that Carson lured her husband into a fatal trap for political reasons -– both John Yancey and Carson were candidates to succeed Carson's father as sheriff.

After Jim Carson was booted out of office in August 2006, two former Scott County jail inmates came forward to claim that Marty Carson killed Yancey because the sergeant was investigating allegations that he was involved in meth dealing.

In key trial testimony, a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper corroborated those witnesses. “John-John and I spoke to an informant about Marty Carson being involved in the drug trade and accepting bribes," Mark Chitwood told the jury.

The statute of limitations on a criminal charge of civil-rights violations will expire in November 2008. “While ample time presently remains for a complete investigation, it is important that the Grand Jury have the opportunity to conduct such an investigation as soon as possible,” Lori Yancey says in her motion.

Carson has filed a response brief which contends U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Varlan would intrude on the authority of the executive branch if he granted the “extraordinary request of a private, civil litigant to intervene in the grand jury process.”

Lori Yancey, he also argues, “is judicially estopped to assert any interest she may have to seek a criminal prosecution” because, among other things, she repeatedly emphasized to the trial jury the distinction between the civil burden of proof –- a preponderance of the evidence –- and the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt in criminal cases.

UPDATE

Judge Varlan denied the motion in a Dec. 14, 2007 order, citing precedent holding that “[t]he decision whether to prosecute and what charge to file or bring before a grand jury are decisions that lay within a prosecutor’s discretion.”