CHARLESTON — A Kanawha County judge has approved a $1 million dollar settlement for the estate of a man who died while in custody of the West Virginia State Police.
Kanawha Circuit Judge Kenneth Ballard signed off on the settlement July 9 in the wrongful death case filed by Edmond Exline II, whose father died in February 2023 after a run-in with State Police on Interstate 81 near Martinsburg.
The incident garnered national attention.
According to the civil complaint filed last July, Edmond Exline was walking along I-81 near Martinsburg on February 12, 2023, when three unidentified State Troopers arrived at the scene and began chasing him. They grabbed and tackled him, taking him to the ground. They also handcuffed Exline and used Tasers on him and physically attacked him, the complaint states.
The complaint says the State Troopers stopped communicating with Berkeley County Emergency Communications for about five minutes while they attacked Exline. Eventually, according to the complaint, Exline was unresponsive. That’s when the State Troopers handcuffed Exline and placed him in the back of a cruiser. When they realized he was unresponsive, the Troopers pulled Exline from the cruiser and administered Narcan on him, according to the complaint, even though Exline had not overdosed on any narcotics.
Exline was taken to Berkeley Medical Center and pronounced dead at 10:31 p.m. The complaint says Exline was unarmed and had not committed a criminal offense.
Media reports quoted family members as saying Exline had battled paranoid schizophrenic and was likely having a mental health breakdown, but no explanation for what he was doing on I-81 has been given.
The State Troopers’ actions “were not taken in good faith and were in violation of clearly established law,” the complaint states. “No objectively reasonable police officer could have perceived the force as necessary.”
The complaint also notes comments made by Gov. Jim Justice and former State Police Superintendent Jan Cahill about the incident.
“I’ve seen the video,” Justice said March 20. “It’s very, very concerning.”
“I’ll promise you that the situation on I-81 does not look good, that’s all there is to it,” he said March 29.
A judge will rule on how the $1 million settlement will be distributed among Exline’s son and his four brothers. On the criminal side of the matter, a Grant County prosecuting attorney who served as a special prosecutor in the case took the case to the Berkeley County grand jury and sought involuntary manslaughter indictments for the three troopers, but the jury unanimously decided against the indictments.
In the civil lawsuit, the defendants were accused of excessive force, unlawful search and seizure, unlawful detainment, battery, assault, deliberate indifference to Exline’s rights, negligent training and supervision, negligence and gross negligence.
The estate was seeking compensatory damages for physical pain and suffering, mental pain and suffering, injuries resulting from the defendants’ conduct as well as indignity, embarrassment, humiliation, annoyance, inconvenience and degradation. It also sought punitive damages, pre-judgment interest, attorney fees, court costs and other relief.
The estate was represented by John-Mark Atkinson and Mark A. Atkinson of Atkinson & Frampton in Charleston.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 23-C-622