PRINCETON – A Bluefield police officer is suing West Virginia State Police and a state trooper after he was injured by the trooper while performing a traffic stop.
Joseph Danieley filed a complaint Feb. 20 in Mercer Circuit Court against West Virginia State Police and State Trooper Keith Filer alleging negligence.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that on May 30, 2017, he was on duty as a patrol officer for the city of Bluefield and had stopped a vehicle. The suit states another Bluefield officer had stopped to assist the plaintiff as well as two other Bluefield cruisers. One officer was killed, the suit states.
The suit states that Filer, who was driving a West Virginia State Police cruiser, crested the hill near the traffic stop at an excessive rate of speed, lost control and struck two of the Bluefield City Police cruisers, which struck the plaintiff.
The plaintiff alleges he sustained severe, permanent and debilitating injuries, including fractures in his cervical spine, fracture of the zygomatic arc and right knee injuries as a result.
The plaintiff holds West Virginia State Police and Filer responsible because the defendant Filer allegedly drove the state police cruise at an excessive rate of speed of more than 100 miles an hour and failed to maintain control.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks compensatory damages in the amount of liability insurance coverage available to defendants, compensation over and above these limits from Atlantic Specialty Insurance Co. the underinsured motorist carrier for his employer, the City of Bluefield. He is represented by William Flanigan of Sanders, Austin & Flanigan in Princeton. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Derek C. Swope.
Mercer Circuit Court Case number 18-C-40