CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — A federal court judge halted a trial on Tuesday morning after an attorney involved invited the media to attend.
The attorney is representing a family of four injured in the 2015 crash on I-75 that killed six people.
The family is suing the trucking company that Benjamin Brewer was working for when he caused the crash.
The attorney representing the Close family, who filed suit after being injured in that 2015 crash, sent a press release to the media on Monday.
The judge saw media reports and delayed the trial, saying that the attorney violated a rule attorneys must follow in Tennessee's eastern district.
Nearly six years after a deadly crash in Ooltewah, the civil case was finally set to be heard in federal court.
In 2018, Brewer, a truck driver for Cool Runnings Express, was convicted of causing the crash that killed six people and injured a family of four.
The family of four, the Close family, said in a statement sent to our NBC affiliate, WRCB, by a marketing company the day before the civil case began:
“The tragic wreck that our family had the misfortune to experience on June 25, 2015, has forever changed our entire family, including our two children. Our hope is that our legal case against Cool Runnings Express will make other trucking companies take a closer look at the drivers they hire and prevent other families from going through this nightmare.”
The Close family's attorney, Danny Ellis, said:
“After many delays, we are eager to share the Close Family’s incident from the deadly I-75 crash with a jury. We are confident that the facts regarding Cool Runnings Express’ negligent hiring and operating practices speak for themselves. Safety regulations are integral to almost every aspect of the trucking industry, but they only protect the lives of the drivers and our communities when trucking companies actually adhere to them.”
The federal judge saw the statements in news reports and addressed them at the start of the trial Tuesday.
He declared these statements violated Local Rule 83.2, Public Statements by Attorneys.
This rule states lawyers can't make an extrajudicial statement, other than a quotation from or reference to public records, which would interfere with a fair trial.
Criminal defense attorney Jerry Summers says this rule boils down to one thing.
"Some lawyer does something that would affect either side of getting a fair trial,” Summers told WRCB.
The judge felt the violation would make for an unfair trial.
Ellis said he was not aware of the rule.
The judge says he does not want any more interaction with the media during the litigation.
The defense was upset with the statements sent to the media and said it would interfere with a fair trial. They said they spent a long time preparing for the civil case, only to be interfered with the day before, and requested the trial be pushed back.
The judge has pushed the trial back to a later date that has not been announced yet.
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A public federal trial over a lawsuit filed by a family that was injured in a deadly crash in June of 2015 is set to begin in Chattanooga on Tuesday.
The crash, which was caused by former semi-driver Benjamin Brewer who was employed by Cool Runnings Express at the time, killed six people and injured several others near the Ooltewah exit on I-75.
The dead included 31-year-old Tiffany Watts of Morristown and her mother, 51-year-old Sandra Anderson of Rutledge.
A press release sent to our NBC affiliate, WRCB, on Monday says the Honorable Travis McDonough and a jury will hear claims of how Hamilton County residents Travis and Tina Close, along with their two minor children, were injured and forever changed after being involved in the crash.
"The tragic wreck that our family had the misfortune to experience on June 25, 2015, has forever changed our entire family, including our two children. Our hope is that our legal case against Cool Runnings Express will make other trucking companies take a closer look at the drivers they hire and prevent other families from going through this nightmare," Travis and Tina Close said in a statement.
The suit claims that Cool Runnings Express recklessly hired driver Benjamin Brewer just 10 days before the crash without conducting or analyzing his 5-year driving history or performing a criminal background check.
"After many delays, we are eager to share the Close Family’s incident from the deadly I-75 crash with a jury. We are confident that the facts regarding Cool Runnings Express’ negligent hiring and operating practices speak for themselves. Safety regulations are integral to almost every aspect of the trucking industry, but they only protect the lives of the drivers and our communities when trucking companies actually adhere to them," said Danny Ellis, the attorney representing the Close Family, Truck Wreck Justice, PLLC.
Brewer was convicted of multiple counts of vehicular homicide by intoxication for causing the deadly crash and was sentenced to 55 years in prison in 2018. Blood tests showed that he had meth in his system at the time of the crash.
His motion for a new trial in 2019 was denied.
Stay with WBIR for more updates.