Nina Geathers has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the Charleston County Sheriff's Office, the city of Isle of Palms and the town of Mount Pleasant over a November 2024 crash that killed her 19-year-old son, Jaden Geathers, and two other men. The lawsuit alleges that officers should not have pursued the Jaguar that crashed into trees near Mount Pleasant.
What The Lawsuit Alleges
Geathers filed the suit this week, according to the Post and Courier. The complaint names all three agencies and alleges that officers violated state and national standards as well as their departments' policies. It argues that pursuing the Jaguar at roughly 100 mph created an unreasonable danger to other road users. Jaden Geathers was a front-seat passenger, not the driver.
Attorney Christopher Hart told the paper that the danger posed by the pursuit outweighed any potential benefit. “Jaden was a passenger,” Hart said, according to the report. He also argued that Mount Pleasant police should share responsibility because they monitored the pursuit after receiving a be-on-the-lookout call about the speeding Jaguar.
How The Chase Unfolded
The Post and Courier's earlier reporting placed the start of the pursuit at about 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 21, 2024. An Isle of Palms sergeant saw a Jaguar convertible reversing without its rear lights on and followed as it drove away. A passenger, not wearing a seatbelt, was seen looking over the trunk toward the patrol car. The driver then ran a red light on Palm Boulevard in the direction of the connector.
Isle of Palms officers pursued the Jaguar for about 30 seconds, then stopped when it crossed onto the connector bridge at 100 mph, the paper reported. They alerted Mount Pleasant authorities that a speeding vehicle was headed their way. A Charleston County sheriff's deputy later saw the Jaguar weaving between lanes near Rifle Range Road and resumed the pursuit, relaying weather, road and traffic conditions to dispatch. The pursuit lasted about five minutes before the Jaguar crashed into trees along Hungryneck Boulevard in Mount Pleasant.
Three Lives Lost In Minutes
All three people in the 2015 Jaguar convertible were thrown from the vehicle, WCBD News 2 reported. Dennis Bernard, 20, and Scott Tucker Jr., 20, died at the scene. Tucker had recently been sworn in as a Dorchester County jail officer. Jaden Geathers was taken by ambulance and died from blunt-force injuries about three hours after the crash.
Mount Pleasant police officers responded to the crash scene to assist other agencies and emergency crews, the Post and Courier noted. A spokesperson for the Charleston County Sheriff's Office declined to comment on the pending litigation, and a Mount Pleasant police spokesperson likewise declined comment. The Isle of Palms Police Department said it would comment once it has been served with the lawsuit.
What The Agencies' Own Policies Say
The Isle of Palms Police Department and Charleston County Sheriff's Office policies allow pursuits when officers believe a fleeing person poses a greater danger to the public than the pursuit itself, according to the Post and Courier. Isle of Palms policy bars pursuits conducted solely to catch someone for a traffic violation. Both agencies' policies allow officers using emergency lights and sirens to exceed speed limits and disregard certain traffic laws, consistent with South Carolina law governing emergency vehicles. The policies also recognize the dangers of pursuits and state that protecting lives remains a priority.
Another fatal pursuit occurred in the Lowcountry that night: a separate chase in Moncks Corner killed 24-year-old James Blevins hours earlier, the Post and Courier reported at the time. The paper's analysis found 10 fatal pursuit crashes in the tri-county area from 2018 through 2022, about 14 percent of the 70 fatal police-chase crashes reported statewide in that period.
A Prior Court Ruling on Pursuit Liability
South Carolina's Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that officers are not immune from liability for deciding whether to begin or continue a pursuit, according to the South Carolina Supreme Court. The ruling arose from a separate case appealed from York County involving a state trooper and a different fatal crash; it does not decide the allegations in the Geathers lawsuit.
A Prior Settlement Looms Over The Case
The Charleston County Sheriff's Office previously faced a wrongful-death suit over a fatal collision involving a sheriff's squad car. A January 2021 crash killed Sandra Eisner and Sonny Brower; the office later agreed to pay $292,811 to Eisner's estate, according to Live 5 News. The office said the settlement was a financial decision made by its insurance provider, American Southern, and did not assign any admission of guilt or wrongdoing. The Geathers case against the sheriff's office, Isle of Palms and Mount Pleasant is proceeding separately.
