KNOXVILLE, Tenn — Claims of wrongdoing against four Knoxville police officers, the police chief and the city over a man's 2022 drowning have been dismissed.
On Friday, an attorney representing the man's mother filed notice he was dismissing claims in a federal lawsuit against the city and Chief Paul Noel "with prejudice," meaning that's a final decision.
Also, on Sept. 23, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Varlan in Knoxville ordered that four officers -- William Romanini, Joseph Mattina, Brandon Brewer and Timothy Campbell -- be dismissed from the complaint because they have immunity in their capacity as law officers.
KPD had contended the officers did nothing wrong.
Knoxville attorney Lance Baker filed the lawsuit in 2023 on behalf of Kimberly Williams-Clabo, the mother of Mika Wheeler Clabo, 30, who died in July 2022 after ending up in the river near Calhoun's in downtown Knoxville.
Authorities had gotten calls about Clabo acting erratically downtown before he approached the water of his own volition, Varlan noted in his dismissal order. There was debate about whether he actually went in on his own or because he was being pursued.
The lawsuit alleged KPD officers let Clabo drown after he fell into the water. It alleged that officers stood on the bank but did not get him out of the water as he started struggling.
The lawsuit alleged three officers approached him near the embankment as Clabo struggled. A fourth officer later arrived who urged Clabo to swim back to land and climb out of the water.
Clabo went under the water and drowned. His mother argued the officers should have done more to save her son.
After he went in the water, one of the officers called for a fire department rescue boat. He also urged Clabo to swim to a nearby dock.
The other officers who were defendants in the lawsuit tried to talk to Clabo but didn't try an "active rescue," Varlan wrote.
"During the 14 minutes in which Clabo struggled in the water, (the officers) communicated to each other and to bystanders that attempting to rescue Clabo by entering the water was too dangerous," the judge noted.
But, the judge found, video evidence shows only one person, a restaurant kitchen manager, offered a means of aiding Clabo, and that method ultimately wasn't going to work.
By the time a fire department rescue boat arrived, Clabo already had gone under the water.
Varlan said Williams-Clabo had failed to meet the legal test that could have challenged the officers' immunity and liability.
