State to settle lawsuit over Kansas Highway Patrol chase that killed a Topeka woman
State lawmakers voted Wednesday to pay $500,000 to settle a federal lawsuit brought by the family of a woman killed during a 2021 police chase involving a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper who was later deemed to have violated agency policy.
Anita Benz died after Trooper Justin Dobler used a maneuver designed to halt the vehicle he was pursuing in North Topeka. Dobler initially believed the vehicle was possibly stolen and had an improperly cracked windshield but continued the pursuit even after he was twice informed the car wasn't stolen.
After pursuing the vehicle, Dobler elected to perform a tactical vehicle intervention, effectively spinning out the car, which hit a utility pole. The driver of the vehicle, Jeremy Cline, was arrested and his passenger Bentz was transported to the hospital with severe injuries. She died four days later.
Bentz's daughter, Kelly Ratzlof, argued Dobler violated department policy, pointing to a letter sent from KHP officials to the trooper saying he "chose to continue this pursuit for what amounted to a traffic infraction.”
Dobler used excessive force, was twice reprimanded for his conduct during vehicle pursuits and had been instructed alongside his troop to abandon pursuits inside Topeka city limits except for the most serious of offenses, the lawsuit argued.
"Trooper Dobler’s decisions in the Pursuit were not those of a reasonable officer under the totality of the circumstances," the lawsuit said. "Trooper Dobler never had any suspicion of dangerous or violent crime by the occupants of the vehicle, so the reasonable course of action would have been to decline Pursuit, as were his orders."
A panel of top legislators and Gov. Laura Kelly called the State Finance Council approved the settlement during a meeting Wednesday.
Lawmakers discussed the terms of the proposed settlement, as well as two other settlements, behind closed doors for an hour before returning to approve them with no public debate.
Personnel dispute over fired KHP trooper remains ongoing
Dobler was eventually terminated from the KHP but alleged it was because of his support of a group of women who sued the agency's former leader, Herman Jones, over allegations of sexual harassment and a hostile workplace environment.
His firing was overturned last year by the Kansas State Civil Service Board, though that panel found Dobler had violated some KHP policies but not others and reduced his penalty to a one-year suspension without pay. The panel noted it was unusual that Dobler's supervisors initially deemed his conduct to be within policy but reversed course only after the agency's executive officers requested a review.
The state appealed the decision in Shawnee County District Court earlier this year.
Dobler also filed a federal wrongful termination lawsuit against the state, though both parties agreed to dismiss the case in June.
A criminal case against the driver of the vehicle, Jeremy Cline, remains ongoing. Cline was charged with 11 counts in connection with the pursuit, including first degree murder.
A three-judge panel of Kansas Court of Appeals judges unanimously upheld the decision to exclude evidence gathered as a result of the pursuit, as Dobler deployed what the court considered to be excessive force and violated Cline's Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure in the process.
"Suppression of the evidence removes the incentive for officers such as Dobler to disregard policies and perform dangerous maneuvers simply to bring a hastier end to an ill-advised pursuit," Court of Appeals Justice Thomas E. Malone wrote in the opinion.
A spokesperson for the Kansas Highway Patrol said because of "ongoing litigation related to this tragic event" the agency could not comment on the settlement.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: State settles in Kansas Highway Patrol chase that killed Topeka woman
