Angela Born’s Family Sues Over Fatal I-64 Police Pursuit

The Angela Born lawsuit is a federal civil rights and negligence case filed on April 10, 2026, by John M. Born as executor of his wife’s estate, accusing Putnam County sheriff’s deputies, the City of Hurricane, and their officers of causing Angela Born’s death through a reckless high-speed pursuit and spike strip deployment on Interstate 64.¹

What Happened on I-64

On March 5, 2026, Putnam County deputies and Hurricane police pursued 22-year-old Joseph Ryan Elswick, who was allegedly driving a Jeep Cherokee Sport stolen from his grandmother. A criminal complaint says he reached about 120 mph on I-64.²

Officers laid spike strips near mile marker 34 on the eastbound lanes. Elswick swerved, struck the rear of Angela Born’s vehicle, and forced it into the median, where it caught fire. Born, a 52-year-old mother of six from the Elk River community near Clendenin, died at the scene.³

Who Is Being Sued

The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia as case number 3:26-cv-260 and assigned to U.S. District Judge Robert C. “Chuck” Chambers.¹ The named defendants are the Putnam County Commission, Putnam County Sheriff’s Deputy C. Ford, the City of Hurricane, and unnamed officers from both agencies. The estate is represented by Dante diTrapano of Calwell Luce diTrapano and Jesse Forbes of Forbes Law Offices.⁴

What the Complaint Alleges

The lawsuit brings nine counts, grouped around four legal theories.⁵

A Fourteenth Amendment due process claim, arguing that the officers’ conduct during the pursuit violated Born’s constitutional right to life and liberty.
Negligence claims against all defendants for initiating, continuing, and escalating the chase.
Bystander liability claims against supervisory officers who allegedly failed to intervene, halt the pursuit, or stop the spike strip deployment once it became too dangerous.
Monell claims against the Putnam County Commission and the City of Hurricane for what the estate calls inadequate policies, training, and oversight of high-speed pursuits.

The estate is seeking compensatory damages, general damages, punitive damages against the individual officers, and attorney fees.¹

The Pursuit and Spike Strip Decisions

Two choices sit at the center of the case. The complaint alleges Deputy Ford started the pursuit without supervisor authorization and that there was no sign Elswick had committed a violent crime or posed an imminent threat beyond having a stolen vehicle. It also alleges the spike strips were deployed on I-64 while multiple lanes of traffic were moving at 55 to 70 mph, without any effort to clear or hold civilian vehicles in the area.¹

Jesse Forbes said established safety protocols should have led officers to disengage once the chase became too dangerous. He noted that standard factors for deploying tire deflation devices include suspect speed, road surface, weather, vehicle type, and whether the area is populated.¹

How the Defendants Have Responded

Putnam County Sheriff Bobby Eggleton has defended his deputies publicly. He said the pursuit and spike strip use followed department procedure, and pointed to Elswick’s erratic driving, the stolen-vehicle report, and the possibility that the suspect was armed. Eggleton said that at highway speeds officers have limited options to stop a driver who will not pull over, and he placed responsibility on Elswick: “This is just one incident that went horribly wrong, but not due to procedure, not to the actions of the police, but to the actions of Joseph Elswick.”⁶

The City of Hurricane has filed a motion to dismiss the claims against it.² In a statement issued May 19, 2026, diTrapano and Forbes called the estate’s claims “appropriate and necessary” and “well-founded under the law,” and said the suit exists to hold officers and agencies accountable when they act contrary to established laws and policing protocols.⁷

The Legal Hurdles

Federal pursuit cases involving bystanders are hard to win. When officers do not directly use force on the person injured, courts analyze the claim under the Fourteenth Amendment’s substantive due process protections rather than the Fourth Amendment. That test, set by the U.S. Supreme Court in County of Sacramento v. Lewis (1998), asks whether the conduct “shocks the conscience,” which usually requires proof the officer intended harm unrelated to any legitimate law enforcement purpose. In Lewis, an officer who accidentally struck a motorcycle passenger during a chase did not meet that bar.

Qualified immunity is a second obstacle. Courts have shielded officers in pursuit cases unless a plaintiff can identify clearly established precedent making the specific conduct unconstitutional, a principle reinforced in Plumhoff v. Rickard (2014) and Mullenix v. Luna (2015), both involving deadly force used to end pursuits.

The Born complaint may try to work around these hurdles by leaning on the state-law negligence claims and the Monell theory, which targets the agencies’ policies, training, and supervision rather than any officer’s split-second call. Whether the allegations about an unauthorized pursuit, the absence of an imminent threat, and spike strip use in heavy traffic can survive motions to dismiss will shape the case going forward.

Where the Case Stands

As of mid-2026, the civil case is in its early stages before Judge Chambers. The City of Hurricane’s motion to dismiss is pending, and no trial date, settlement, or ruling on the merits has been reported.⁸ Elswick’s criminal case is separate. He faces four felony charges: aggravated vehicular homicide, fleeing from law enforcement causing death, fleeing with reckless indifference to the safety of others, and grand larceny. He remains jailed, and no plea or trial date has been publicly set.²

1
Legal Newsline. Woman’s Estate Sues Over Fatal Putnam Spike Strip Accident
2
Charleston Gazette-Mail. Man Fleeing Police Charged in Fatal Interstate Crash in Putnam County
3
WCHS-TV. Family of Clendenin Woman Killed During I-64 Police Chase Files Lawsuit in Federal Court
4
Hurricane Breeze News. Lawsuit Filed in Fatal Spike Strip Accident
5
WOWK-TV. Lawsuit Filed After Angela Born Killed in Putnam County High-Speed Chase Crash
6
WCHS-TV. Sheriff Defends I-64 Stop Sticks, Cites Suspect’s Erratic Driving and Possible Gun
7
WOWK-TV. Attorneys Release Statement in Angela Born Lawsuit
8
WV MetroNews. Civil Lawsuit Filed in Connection With Businesswoman’s Death in I-64 Crash