Northpinellas: Police sued in death of child

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Police sued in death of child

The mother says Largo police did not act quickly enough with information she gave them when her son was abducted.

By AMELIA DAVIS

If Largo police had acted more promptly, Cynthia Johnson's 18-month-old son wouldn't have died in a car crash two years ago, Johnson alleges in a lawsuit filed this week.

According to the suit filed against the Largo Police Department, Johnson told a police dispatcher "on or about July 5, 1997 . . . that her husband, Jeffrey Johnson had abducted her son" and provided the dispatch officer with their exact location at a motel in Vero Beach.

Mrs. Johnson, who then lived in Largo, expected the dispatcher to immediately notify authorities in Vero Beach, the lawsuit says. But instead, Vero Beach police were not notified until the next day, according to the lawsuit.

"The dispatcher left the information for a detective who didn't receive it until the next morning," said Mrs. Johnson's attorney, Tyrone Zdravko.

But Jane Hayman, Largo's city attorney, said the Police Department did nothing wrong. "The facts will show the city responded in a timely manner," Hayman said.

When Vero Beach police showed up at the motel the next day, Jeffrey Johnson jumped into his pickup truck with his son, Shea, and drove at high speeds along Interstate 95, according to news reports. With police in pursuit and his child in his lap, Jeffrey Johnson slammed into a bridge support beam leaving no skid marks. Jeffrey Johnson died instantly; Shea died a short time later.

The lawsuit alleges that if the Largo Police Department had relayed the message to Vero Beach authorities in a timely manner, Jeffrey Johnson would have been arrested while he slept in his motel room, and the boy would have been safely returned to his mother.

"The actual involvement of the Vero Beach Police Department will play into this," Hayman said.

Several days before Jeffrey Johnson took off to South Florida with the boy, he was released from jail on $90,000 bail for two counts of aggravated stalking, grand theft firearm and felony possession of a firearm in Pinellas County. He held his family against their will in the family's Largo home, according to police reports, until Mrs. Johnson could escape with her 4-year-old daughter from a previous marriage.

After her escape, Mrs. Johnson called Largo police from Sun Coast Hospital, which is near where the family lived. Police issued a warrant for Johnson's arrest. Largo police attempted to arrest Johnson at his work place in Seminole, but he fled in his truck with the boy. Officers followed for a while but stopped on U.S. 19, when a police officer noticed Johnson had removed his hands from the steering wheel while going 80 mph, according to news reports.

Throughout the entire ordeal, Johnson continued to call his estranged wife. She was able to trace his calls with a caller identification device and notified Largo police when he phoned from Vero Beach, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit asks for a trial by jury and an undisclosed cash settlement.

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