Sedgwick County settles car-crash lawsuit against deputy for $20,000

Sedgwick County has reached a $20,000 settlement in a lawsuit against a sheriff’s deputy and county commissioners over a 2009 crash that killed two Haysville men in a car that purportedly sped away after the deputy followed it.

The lawsuit, filed last year by the estate of Beau Blake, a 25-year-old passenger in a Camaro Z28, said sheriff’s Deputy George Jared Bloesing was pursuing the car at more than 80 mph before it collided with a soybean truck at 63rd South and Broadway early one morning in 2009. The Camaro driver, Colton Emerson, 19, also died.

The lawsuit claimed that the deputy violated policy by not using emergency lights and siren and was driving in an “unsafe and dangerous manner” that caused Emerson to drive unsafely. Bloesing thought Emerson had been driving on a closed roadway, the lawsuit said.

Another court document, defending against the lawsuit, said that the deputy followed the car for only seconds, that both occupants of the car were impaired by drugs and that the actions of the Camaro driver, not the deputy, led to the crash.

At one point, the lawsuit sought $4 million in damages.

County spokeswoman Amanda Matthews said the county recently settled the lawsuit for $20,000. It had been scheduled to go to trial in September.

Before the county announced the settlement earlier this month, it was decided that it would have cost more money to try the lawsuit than to settle, “and we thought under the circumstances, that it would be in the best interest of the county to go ahead and settle for the lesser amount,” County Counselor Rich Euson said.

Bloesing, who was hired in 2006, remains with the sheriff’s office.

This story was originally published July 20, 2012 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Sedgwick County settles car-crash lawsuit against deputy for $20,000."