File photo: Dougtone / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Angela Born, 52, ran a strawberry farm in Clendenin. On March 5 she was driving eastbound on I-64 when, her family’s federal lawsuit says, a fleeing driver hit her car after officers put spike strips across a busy interstate without stopping traffic. Her car ended up in the median, on fire. She died at the scene. What follows about the officers is allegation.
The crash
Born owned Country Road House and Berries in Clendenin. On the afternoon of March 5, she was driving eastbound on I-64 in Putnam County, near the Hurricane exit, in a company-owned car, according to the lawsuit as WCHS reported it. The criminal complaint says Joseph Ryan Elswick, 23, of Hurricane, took his grandmother’s red 2025 Jeep Cherokee Sport and her purse. His grandmother called 911 shortly after 2:30 p.m., according to the West Virginia Gazette-Mail.
A Putnam County sheriff’s deputy found the Jeep near Trace Creek and turned on lights and sirens, but Elswick did not stop, the complaint says. The deputy said he reached 120 mph at one point and swerved into oncoming traffic. Hurricane police set up spike strips near mile marker 34. Elswick hit them, kept going, and struck the back of Born’s car, the complaint says. The lawsuit alleges that the impact sent her car across several lanes and into the median, where it caught fire. She died at the scene.
Elswick was charged with four felonies: vehicular homicide, fleeing causing death, fleeing with reckless indifference and grand larceny. The Gazette-Mail’s report did not include a plea or trial date.
The lawsuit
The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, WCHS reported. It names the Putnam County Commission, the City of Hurricane, Deputy C. Ford and other unidentified deputies and officers. It alleges the officers deployed spike strips near an entrance ramp without stopping traffic, and that Ford had no information or reasonable suspicion that Elswick was involved in a violent crime or posed an imminent threat. It argues Elswick could have been caught later without significantly raising the risk to the public.
The family is asking for compensatory damages for Born’s death and its losses, including her husband and six children, and punitive damages against the individual officers. The claims are federal civil rights violations and state-law negligence. Her attorneys, Jesse Forbes and Dante diTrapano, brought the case.
What police have said
Law enforcement has defended the pursuit, saying the suspect drove erratically and may have been armed, which prompted the use of spike strips, WCHS reported. The West Virginia State Police investigated, with help from its Crash Reconstruction Team.
Next in court
No ruling yet in the civil case, WCHS reported. Watch for the defendants’ response in federal court and for any hearing or plea in Elswick’s criminal case.
Police say he drove erratically and may have been armed. The suit says he could have been caught later without adding risk for anyone on the road. Who decides, in the moment, that a spike strip is worth live traffic?
Sources: WCHS; West Virginia Gazette-Mail.
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