A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Logan Owsley against eight Bartholomew County officials alleging federal civil obstruction of justice in the shooting death of Cary Owsley.
The court ruled Wednesday to enter final judgement in favor of the county officials, ruling that there is no federal jurisdiction over the claims filed by Logan Owsley involving the 2013 death of his father Cary Owsley.
Cary Owsley was found dead at his Zephyr Village home outside of Columbus on April 7, 2013, according to court records. Then-Bartholomew County Coroner Larry Fisher, one of the defendants, ruled that Owsley’s death was a suicide.
“The Bartholomew Circuit Court, the Marion County Superior Court, the Indiana Court of Appeals and now the U.S. District Court have ruled that there is no cause of action involving constitutional violations against the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department and myself,” said former Sheriff Mark E. Gorbett, who was one of the defendants in the case. “I am hopeful that all involved can accept these multiple court rulings in favor of the law enforcement officers. This litigation has been difficult for all involved.”
In addition, Gorbett said, “I know from my law enforcement experience, any death of a loved one is difficult to overcome, no matter what the facts are.”
Logan Owsley’s attorney Trent McCain, who had just left court in Merrillville when contacted Wednesday afternoon, said he had not read the judge’s ruling yet.
“My team and I will be discussing options over the next few days,” he said. “We will be exploring our options.”
Cheryl Jackson, Cary Owsley’s sister, said “We have a meeting with our lead attorney, Trent McCain, and our two attorneys from the Chicago law firm, Loevy and Loevy, next week.
They have all three assured us that we have further legal options, and that they intend to stand with the Owsley family until all options in the fight for justice for Cary Owsley are exhausted.”
In an earlier interview when the motion to dismiss was filed, McCain had said if the motion was granted, Logan Owsley has the option to appeal the decision to the federal Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
Attorneys for the eight current or former Bartholomew County employees being sued had filed a motion to dismiss the case May 18, 2018.
The lawsuit, which was in amended form, has been pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana since April 7, 2015, the two-year anniversary of Cary Owsley’s death.
In their motion to dismiss the case, the defendants alleged Cary Owsley’s son, Logan Owsley, had no legal standing to assert any claims relating to his father’s death, based on recent state court rulings, including by the Indiana Supreme Court. The motion also claimed qualified immunity, stating the defendants did not violate Cary Owsley’s clearly established rights.
They also alleged the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over Logan Owsley’s claims because the amended complaint failed to state a claim for which relief could be granted. Bartholomew Circuit Court determined there were no claims related to Cary Owsley’s death to be pursued, according to the motion to dismiss.
The case had been on hold in federal court while the state courts ruled on whether Logan Owsley retained standing in his father’s case after Cary Owsley’s probate case was closed in Bartholomew Circuit Court in 2016 by a special judge.
The federal lawsuit was filed April 7, 2015, by Logan Owsley in U.S. District Court against then-county sheriff Gorbett, Fisher and current and former sheriff’s deputies E. DeWayne Janes Sr., Dean A. Johnson, Christie L. Nunemaker, Brent E. Worman, William R. Kinman Jr. and Christopher Roberts.
Owsley, 49, was found by his wife, Lisa, in his home April 7, 2013 with a chest wound from a bullet fired from a handgun, police said.
Nearly four months later, three sheriff’s department deputies — E. DeWayne Janes, Dean Johnson and Christie Nunemaker — were disciplined for errors in judgment during the investigation.
Among those errors were allowing Janes, who was formerly married to Cary Owsley’s wife Lisa, to enter the death scene and remove Cary Owsley’s body from the home and allowing him to touch and secure the handgun, according to the lawsuit. Janes helped cut out a section of the rug that was blood-soaked and bagged it for disposal after investigators left, according to allegations in the lawsuit.
In the most recent court filing to reopen the federal lawsuit, attorneys representing Logan Owsley alleged that the Bartholomew County officials, in conspiracy with others, intentionally destroyed and manipulated key pieces of evidence in the shooting death and engaged in other egregious misconduct to cover up true circumstances and the cause of Cary Owsley’s death, according to the petition.
“In so doing, defendants engaged in an illegal conspiracy, obstructed justice, denied access to the courts and inflicted emotional distress, in violation of the U.S. Constitution and Indiana Law,” the petition stated. Logan Owsley sought compensatory and punitive damages and attorney fees from the eight defendants in a jury trial, the lawsuit stated.
In Wednesday’s ruling to dismiss the lawsuit, Young wrote that he granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss because Logan Owsley lacked standing in the case, resulting in the federal court lacking jurisdiction.
“The claim underlying plaintiff’s (Logan Owsley’s) access to courts claims is one for wrongful death,” Young wrote in his ruling. “In all five federal counts, he alleges that due to the defendants’ wrongful actions, he has been deprived of his right to bring an action for wrongful death of the decedent (Cary Owsley).”
Young wrote that to bring a wrongful death claim in Indiana, one must be a personal representative of the decedent’s estate and the claim must be filed within two years of the accrual of the cause of action.
“At the time the plaintiff filed this cause of action on April 7, 2015 — the two year anniversary of the decedent’s death — he was not the personal representative of decedent’s estate,” Young wrote. “Indeed, he (Logan Owsley) filed a motion to remove decedent’s wife Lisa as personal representative one month after filing the complaint and the Bartholomew Circuit Court denied that motion on Feb. 16, 2016.”
In the same order, the Circuit Court closed the estate and assigned whatever interest the estate of Cary A. Owsley had in the federal lawsuit to Logan Owsley, Young wrote.
Because the federal lawsuit was filed in Indianapolis, Logan Owsley filed a petition for appointment as personal representative in Marion Superior Court, which was granted on Feb. 29, 2016, Young wrote. “The caption of this federal lawsuit designates plaintiff (Logan Owsley) as administrator, because, after the Marion Superior Court appointed him personal representative status, the federal court granted the plaintiff leave to amend the present complaint to show he was bringing the lawsuit both individually and as a personal representative of the decedent’s estate.”
The Marion Superior Court then reversed itself, ruling that any claims related to a coverup of a wrongful death action, which necessarily occurred after the decedent’s death, could not have violated the decedent’s constitutional rights, Young wrote.
Based on that action, and a denied appeal before the Indiana Court of Appeals, the plaintiff, Logan Owsley, did not have personal representative status to bring the claim in the federal lawsuit and does not have personal representative status now, Young wrote.
Young’s order granting the motion to dismiss was sent electronically to attorneys in the case on Wednesday.
