Federal Judge Says Government Knew Soldier Posed “Substantial Risk”
Posted Saturday, April 1, 2017 by Chris Thayer
A wrongful death occurs when someone dies because of the negligence or misconduct of another person. If someone’s behavior results in the death of your loved one, your family has the right to recover damages for lost future wages, lost compensation, and pain and suffering.
The following is an example of conduct that a federal judge might find resulted in two wrongful deaths. Note that this is a federal claim involving federal law. Washington, however, also has a wrongful death statute that allows families to recover damages.
Wrongful Deaths Caused by Soldiers
In 2011, a high school student and her boyfriend, a Marysville native, were killed (in an execution-style shooting) in the woods outside of Fort Stewart, a military base in Georgia. The student’s parents brought a wrongful death lawsuit against the federal government, claiming that the government acted negligently in not acting on incriminating evidence it had against the group of soldiers that killed their daughter.
A federal judge in Seattle recently issued an adverse (or legal) inference, finding that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Army knew two months before the shooting that the leader of the renegade group of soldiers “posed a substantial risk” to the public.
The Marysville native was former Army Pvt. Michael Roark, who was allegedly killed because the renegade group leader, former Pvt. Isaac Aguigui no longer trusted him. Roark’s 17-year-old girlfriend died because she was with him. (Aguigui is a native of Cashmere, which is in Chelan County.)
There will be a bench trial in April. (Note that while Washington has a wrongful death statute, so does the federa
The Government’s Evidence
Here is some of the evidence that the government had that Aguigui posed a risk to the public:
In 2009, Aguigui was thrown out of the U.S. Military Academy prep school because he held a knife to another cadet’s throat.In 2011, Aguigui told military police officials that he and another soldier had conspired to kill a civilian drug dealer.Also in 2011, Aguigui’s pregnant wife was found dead. (He was convicted of her murder in 2014.)The day after his wife died, Aguigui applied for Army death benefit, which he used to fund his plan to overthrow the government.$30,000 of that money was used to buy dozens of military-style firearms.Aguigui was planning an attack at Fort Stewart and had talked about poisoning Washington’s apple crop.
While this is an extreme example, it is possible that your employer or someone else had information that could have prevented your loved one’s wrongful death. You might be entitled to damages if someone has withheld information or failed to act when they had an obligation to do so, and that action (or inaction) results in a wrongful death.
Contact Us Today
If a loved one has died because of the negligence or misconduct of another person, your family has the right to compensation. Contact an experienced wrongful death attorney at Pivotal Law Group today for a free consultation.