Beaverton man sues after wife goes missing and dies [Archive]

annalyzer

02-12-2009, 04:09 AM

http://www.oregonlive.com/washingtoncounty/index.ssf/2009/02/beaverton_man_sues_after_wife.html

Beaverton man sues after wife goes missing and dies

by Brad Schmidt, The Oregonian
Wednesday February 11, 2009, 4:45 PM

A Beaverton man whose wife went missing and died in 2007 is suing the city, the state of Washington and Grays Harbor County, Wash., for negligence.

The body of Beverly Joyce Johnson, 69, was found along a logging road near Aberdeen, Wash., on Feb. 7, 2007. Johnson -- who had a seizure disorder that caused severe disorientation -- was listed in a national database for missing and endangered people on Jan. 27, 2007, according to the lawsuit.

A citizen noticed her driving erratically in Washington and passed the tip to local authorities and the Washington State Patrol, according to the lawsuit filed in Grays Harbor County Superior Court in December. But Johnson's missing-person status was not relayed to law enforcement, the lawsuit said, and police did not follow up.

Johnson is survived by her husband, Del Johnson. The city of Beaverton would not comment on the pending litigation.

sarahhod

02-13-2009, 05:38 AM

Missing woman’s family sues over police missteps

Delbert Johnson claims law enforcement errors in the search contributed to his wife’s death

By Kevin Harden
Pamplin Media Group, Feb 12, 2009, Updated 5.3 hours ago

The family of a 69-year-old Beaverton woman who disappeared for 12 days two years ago is suing the state of Washington, Grays Harbor County, Wash., and the city of Beaverton for what they say was negligence that led to her death on a snowy logging road in the Olympic National Forest.
Attorneys representing Delbert Johnson, widower of 69-year-old Beverly Joyce Johnson, filed a lawsuit in mid-December seeking at least $3 million in damages for the “loss of mutual love, affection, companionship, society and consortium.”
The lawsuit was filed in Grays Harbor County Superior Court. No trial date has been set for the case.
The city of Beaverton has not responded to the lawsuit’s claims. Grays Harbor County has turned the issue over to the Washington Counties Insurance Risk Pool, which has assigned a Seattle attorney Duncan K. Fobes to handle the case.
Fobes said the lawsuit had “no merit to any claims against Grays Harbor County,” and the county “will be responding accordingly.”
According to the lawsuit, the Beaverton Police Department failed to enter Johnson’s missing person information correctly into the National Crime Information Center database so the agency would be notified in the event she was discovered.
The search for Beverly Johnson involved Beaverton police officers, Grays Harbor County sheriff’s deputies, police officers from Elma and Aberdeen, Wash., and Washington State Patrol.
Several law enforcement missteps

Beverly Johnson had a history of twilight seizures that impaired her memory and often left her unable to communicate. She was taking medication for the seizures at the time she disappeared on Jan. 27, 2007, after an afternoon trip to the Beaverton City Library.
Her purple 1999 four-door Honda Accord was seen several hours later that night driving erratically on Highway 12 east of Elma, Wash., in the Puget Sound region. At the time, Tyler Trimble, a Montesano, Wash., parking enforcement officer and police explorer scout, followed the car for several miles, calling emergency dispatchers to report a dangerous driver. No law enforcement officers immediately responded to the call and Trimble eventually lost sight of the Honda as it left the highway and drove into Elma.
Johnson’s name and a description of her car were included in a missing/endangered person bulletin available through the National Crime Information Center database. The lawsuit claims the Grays Harbor County emergency dispatch center failed to heed that information when Trimble reported the erratic driver. The center also failed to report the missing person when Trimble called again from home to report that he had seen Johnson’s missing car.
Nearly two weeks later, on Feb. 7, two biologists taking water samples in the Olympic National Forest discovered Beverly Johnson’s car stalled on a lonely, isolated logging road near Wynoochee Dam. Johnson was locked out of the car and died of exposure in the cold weather. Her body was found on the ground about 20 yards behind the car.
‘I’d be having coffee with her right now’

An investigation into the disappearance by Grays Harbor County officials discovered a string of missed opportunities and missteps that led to the failure to find Johnson’s car on the road days before she died. The 22-page report concluded that no one was to blame for not finding Johnson in time.
Delbert Johnson, her husband of 51 years, declined to discuss the lawsuit in detail, but said law enforcement agencies had several opportunities to find his wife, but failed to take proper action.
“I think a police car with its lights on could have stopped her that night,” Delbert Johnson said from his Beaverton home. “If they had, she’d be alive today. I’d be having coffee with her right now.”
Delbert Johnson said he first learned about the Grays Harbor County law enforcement missteps in mid-February 2007, the same day his family held a memorial service for his wife in Lake Oswego.
“I didn’t know anything about it until that night,” he said. “She could have been picked up off that road right then.”

http://www.beavertonvalleytimes.com/news/story.php?story_id=123447841168272100