Thumbnail image courtesy of the Gold Beach Police Department A Curry County woman is suing the City of Gold Beach and one of its police officers, alleging that the officer, Kenneth Moore, exercised excessive force when he shot her twice during a traffic stop on Jan. 23, 2024. Sharon Johnston-Corson sustained two bullet wounds in her shoulder, according to the complaint filed on her behalf in the United States District Court in Medford on Wednesday. One of those shots caused a pulmonary contusion and resulted in bullet fragments being lodged inside her left lung. The complaint also states that after shooting her, Moore pulled Johnston-Corson out of her Subaru and forced her face-down on the ground to handcuff her in violation of Gold Beach Police Department policy stating that “individuals subject to force ‘should not be placed on their stomachs for an extended period of time as this could impair their ability to breathe.’” Moore was also allegedly not wearing his body camera during the incident, the complaint states, and the camera on the dashboard of his own vehicle wasn’t working. According to Johnston-Corson’s attorney, Alicia LeDuc Montgomery, of the Battle Ground, Washington-firm LeDuc Montgomery LLC, Moore was the only officer present during the events leading up to the shooting, though there were several civilian bystanders nearby. “There were at least two mechanisms by which law enforcement policy would have had him record [the traffic stop] and yet there is no recording,” LeDuc Montgomery told Redwood Voice Community News on Thursday. Johnston-Corson is also represented by Ethan Levi, of the Portland firm Levi Merrithew Horst P.C. The plaintiff’s attorneys state that Moore, who was acting within the scope of his employment as a Gold Beach police officer, violated Johnston-Corson’s Fourth Amendment rights under the United States Constitution to be free from unreasonable search and seizures. This includes the right to be free from excessive force during an arrest or investigatory stop. Moore also allegedly failed to comply with an Oregon state law that calls for police officers to consider other alternatives to shooting the plaintiff, which includes verbal de-escalation, waiting for backup or using a lesser degree of force. Johnston-Corson’s attorneys state that Gold Beach is vicariously liable for Moore’s actions. Gold Beach Police Chief Joel Hensley and City Administrator Pro Tem Anthony Pagano could not be reached for comment on Thursday. According to Johnston-Corson’s complaint, when he initiated the traffic stop Moore recognized Johnston-Corson from a prior DUI arrest and believed that her license was suspended. He reported detecting the odor of alcohol coming from inside her vehicle and found out from dispatch that her license was still suspended. Driving on a suspended license is a Class A misdemeanor in Oregon, according to the complaint. At about 5:35 p.m., Moore, who was equipped with a Taser and a radio in addition to his gun, radioed for backup in preparation of arresting Johnston-Corson and then instructed her to exit the vehicle. The plaintiff, who was unarmed, remained seated in the parked vehicle. The complaint states that she was visibly distraught and crying. “Despite requesting assistance on his radio, and faced with a distraught Ms. Johnston-Corson, Defendant Moore did not wait for backup to arrive,” the complaint states. “Instead, he opened the front driver’s side door [and] told Ms. Johnston-Corson she was under arrest. Her distress intensified and she told Defendant Moore she was scared if she went to jail she would die.” According to the complaint, Johnston-Corson referenced recent cases where women had died while in custody at the “Gold Beach jail.” The complaint cites a November 2017 case where a 24-year-old woman died in custody at the Curry County Jail and an August 2022 case where a 34-year-old woman was found dead in a holding cell at the jail. Without providing additional time or warning and without backup, Moore forced himself into Johnston-Corson’s vehicle, pressed himself on top of her and grabbed her right arm with his left hand, the complaint states. Though Johnston-Corson was seated and crying, according to the complaint, Moore allegedly yelled at her to stop resisting. However, based on witness statements, Moore also allegedly yelled at Johnston-Corson to “not get out of the car.” “At some point, the car began slowly rolling forward down Caughell Street, which is on a downhill slope,” the complaint states. “Defendant Moore remained with his torso and left arm inside the [vehicle], with his feet on the ground and the driver-side door fully open. Ms. Johnston-Corson, whose right arm was restrained and whose movement was limited by Defendant Moore’s body weight, could not easily control the vehicle or see the road ahead.” It was at that point that Moore allegedly drew his gun, put the barrel up to the plaintiff’s left shoulder and “told her to stop or else he would shoot her.” “Without waiting for a response to his demand or giving her an opportunity to comply, he immediately fired a shot into her shoulder,” the complaint states. Moore then allegedly dragged Johnson-Corson out of the vehicle and restrained her on the ground, holding her in a prone position, despite the plaintiff stating that she was having difficulty breathing. Moore tried to call for help, but his police radio was tuned to the frequency used for hospital-to-ambulance communications instead of law enforcement, according to the complaint. When the use of his radio failed, Moore yelled at a bystander to call 911 for help. “This critical error by Defendant Moore delayed emergency aid and further endangered Ms. Johnston-Corson’s life,” the complaint states. Johnston-Corson was ultimately airlifted to Oregon Health & Science University, a press release from the plaintiff’s attorneys stated. The plaintiff’s complaint uses Moore’s own words to allege that the officer acknowledged that he was about to use deadly force and understood its consequences, citing a written statement obtained from the officer. “I knew that shooting her in the head was the best way to disable her immediately, but I did not want to kill her,” he said in his written statement included in the plaintiff’s complaint. “I just wanted her to stop, so I put the gun to the back of her left shoulder area and again told her to stop the car or I would shoot her.” According to Johnston-Corson’s complaint, she suffered serious physical injury, pain, emotional trauma and mental anguish. She has also incurred medical expenses and other financial losses due to her injuries. This isn’t the first time Moore was named as a defendant in a lawsuit for actions he allegedly took within the scope of his duties as a peace officer. In July 2024, LeDuc Montgomery filed a complaint in the United States District Court in Medford alleging that Curry County violated the civil rights of John Lee Malaer, a paraplegic man who had a campsite in Harbor, Oregon. According to the complaint, Moore, then a deputy with the Curry County Sheriff’s Office, unlawfully cited Malaer for criminal trespassing on public property on July 13, 2022. The citation came two days after the county had leased property to a private party for $1 per year. Moore’s colleague, Jordan Rhodes, then-code enforcement officer Melvin Trovar, Sheriff John Ward and former commissioner Christopher Paasch were also named as individual defendants in Malaer’s lawsuit. In an email to Redwood Voice, LeDuc Montgomery said that the judge in the Malaer case, U.S. Magistrate Mark D. Clarke, recently denied a motion from Curry County to dismiss the case and ruled that Malaer has enough information to allow it to proceed. “Curry County has a few weeks to file an objection to the judge’s ruling and they are still in their window to do so,” LeDuc Montgomery said. 1[90]Download