Parents sue CCSD after son killed in crash by driver fleeing police
The parents of a man who died after his vehicle was struck by a teen believed under the influence and driving a van more than 90 mph while fleeing from Clark County School District police officers filed a lawsuit Monday.
Larry and Julie Gonzales — whose 23-year-old son, Jeffrey Gonzales, died at the crash scene in February 2022 — filed the complaint alleging negligence in District Court.
The complaint was filed against the Clark County School District Police Department, the school district, police officers Bryan Chaplin Jr. and Eric Schmidt, minivan driver Dyvonn Grissom and the minivan’s owner Khandi Rose.
Jim Sweetin, an attorney representing the Gonzales family, said Tuesday that the circumstances of the case created a situation in which a child was taken from a family “very needlessly.”
The CCSD police department had procedures in place that should have prevented it, he said.
The police officers involved took it upon themselves to go forward with a pursuit and chase a vehicle in a “very dangerous way,” Sweetin said.
The school district said Tuesday that it does not comment on pending litigation.
Court documents say that Grissom — a minor — was later tried and convicted in adult court in connection with the car crash.
Grissom was driving the van in the parking lot of James Regional Sports Park near Sierra Vista High School in southwest Las Vegas.
What was “believed to be a drug transaction” allegedly occurred outside of a van, and Grissom was sitting in the driver’s seat, according to the complaint.
Police activated emergency lights and sirens in an attempt to perform a vehicle stop, but Grissom fled in the van, court documents say.
The complaint alleges that the suspected drug transaction was “not a violent felony crime” that would have fallen under the police department’s policy for allowable pursuits.
The complaint alleges that a police sergeant — who is not a party in the lawsuit — pursued the van, but then lost sight of it.
The police department’s policies and procedures require that if the pursuing officer or supervisor “loses visual sight of the suspect vehicle” the pursuit must end, but that didn’t happen immediately, according to the lawsuit.
A sergeant later called off the pursuit over his police radio because of the van’s “high rate of speed,” the complaint says.
The complaint alleges that Chaplin Jr. and Schmidt continued the pursuit “without audible or visual signals.”
Gonzales was driving and entered the intersection of Torrey Pines Drive and West Windmill Lane on a green traffic light.
Grissom ran a red light and crashed into the driver’s side of Gonzales’ vehicle. At the time, the van was traveling between 93 and 107 miles per hour, court documents allege.
Gonzales was pronounced dead at the scene as a result of blunt force trauma, according to the complaint.
Las Vegas police made contact with Grissom and suspected that he was under the influence of marijuana, which was later confirmed with a blood test, court documents say.
Grissom was found guilty in October 2022 of driving under the influence resulting in death. He was sentenced to four to 10 years in prison.
Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com. Follow @julieswootton on X.