The family of 92-year-old M.O joined civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump Thursday as he announced plans to file a lawsuit in response to her death from a car crash with an Orlando Police Department cruiser.
“We will be filing a $92 million lawsuit against the Orlando Police Department, the maintenance company, and the product manufacturer because somebody is going to be held accountable,” Crump said, surrounded by O’s family.
Crump added the lawsuit will likely be filed in federal court “because we’re going to see if we can show a pattern and practice, but if not, it will come back to state court one way or the other.”
The initial Orlando police crash report found the officer was at fault for the early morning collision on Jan. 18 for failure to yield the right of way.
The Orange County State Attorney’s Office later declined to charge the officer with vehicular homicide.
M.O didn’t dance like your average 92-year-old, as seen in video her family shared with WESH 2 Investigates.
“She was the life of the party at the family gatherings,” Crump said. “She was the one who uplifted everybody.”
O’s loved ones say she brought joy to her entire family.
“My mother was such an angel,” her daughter J said. “If you all would have known her, you all would have fell in love with my mother.”
Since her death nearly six months ago, O’s granddaughter D said their lives have been filled with “sadness, darkness, and unanswered questions.”
O’s children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren wore matching white T-shirts with her picture and angel wings during the news conference with Attorney Crump.
“I am here to say that we will not stop saying my grandmother’s name, O, until justice is served,” her granddaughter R said.
WESH 2 Investigates was the first news outlet to obtain the surveillance video of the deadly crash from the early morning of Jan. 18.
Officer Andrew McKuhen had been stopped at a red light on Hoffner Avenue and Semoran Boulevard.
The video shows his marked 2019 Ford Explorer’s lights turn on as he drove into the intersection, but they suddenly turn off before he accelerated and slammed into the Jeep carrying O home from her weekly bingo game.
For months, WESH 2 Investigates has been pressing Orlando police for answers. Back in January, Orlando police Chief Eric Smith wouldn’t stop at City Hall to answer the question: was the officer on or off-duty?
“It should not have taken, you know, all of your efforts begging for the truth to be revealed,” Crump said.
While Chief Smith has declined multiple interview requests from WESH 2 Investigates, he addressed the documented history of issues with the vehicle’s lights and sirens on a local podcast last month.
“The vehicle had been wrecked prior to him when he came on the department,” Smith said on “The Patrick Carr Show.” “It’s one of our older vehicles, he had brought it in three times saying, ‘Hey my lights aren’t working.'”
WESH 2 Investigates informed O’s family of the decision by the State Attorney’s Office in Orange County to not prosecute Officer McKuhen.
“I always used to tell my mom I was always afraid of her, sometimes going out at night, but I always thought of a drunk driver that may hit her, but no, never a police officer,” O’s daughter E said.
According to the prosecutor’s memo, an attorney for McKuhen told investigators he was attempting to stop a vehicle that made an illegal U-turn.
“There is no evidence that McKuhen drove his vehicle into the intersection in the willful or wanton manner necessary for a finding that he was driving in a reckless manner,” wrote Assistant State Attorney B, who oversees the Traffic Homicide Unit.
Investigators found the police vehicle was going 32 mph at the time of the collision, the memo said.
“If it had been them,” Crump said, “they would have been charged. So, why is the police above the law?”
O’s family members say they want to fight for change to make sure no other family experiences a tragedy like this.
“The devastation within us is something I do not want for any other family ever again,” O’s great-granddaughter T said. “OPD needs to do better. City of Orlando needs to do better.”
A spokesperson for Orlando Mayor B sent WESH 2 Investigates the following statement:
“Our hearts remain with the family and loved ones of Ms. M.O as they continue to grieve this tragic loss. Because there is still ongoing litigation and an internal investigation, we are unable to provide further information.”
An Orlando police public information officer said in an email Thursday they had no further comment, while the internal affairs investigation into McKuhen’s actions is still ongoing.
“I don’t know when our hearts are going to be healed, if ever,” J said, “but justice for my mother, justice for M.O.”
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Source: Wesh
