The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Widow of man killed by trooper awarded $4.8M
Tort settlement is state’s largest since 1990, attorney says.
The widow of a man killed by a Georgia state trooper over an alleged broken taillight in 2020 was awarded a $4.8 million settlement, the family’s attorney said Thursday.
The tort settlement, awarded to the family of Julian E. Lewis, is the largest since 1990, according to data provided by the Georgia Department of Administrative Services, attorney Andrew Lampros said.
“Our hearts grieve for Betty Lewis, who lost her golden years with her husband because of unwarranted and unnecessary deadly force during what should have been a routine traffic stop,” Lampos said in an emailed statement. “The events of that August night should never have happened. Shooting an unarmed man without cause is unconscionable, and violates the freedom that the United States Constitution guarantees all individuals.”
On Aug. 7, 2020, Trooper Jacob Gordon Thompson tried to pull over Lewis in Screven County over a broken taillight. After a brief chase, Thompson used a PIT maneuver to stop the Nissan Sentra that Lewis was driving, according to investigators. Thompson then shot Lewis in the head, killing him. Lewis was 60.
According to the GBI, Thompson gave inconsistent statements regarding events that happened before the shooting. Thompson said he thought Lewis was about to run him over, but authorities found the car was actually disabled when the trooper fired.
The Georgia State Patrol fired Thompson, who was charged with felony murder and aggravated assault within days of the shooting. On June 28, 2021, a grand jury recommended no charges against Thompson.
The Lewis family has requested both a second grand jury and that federal investigators get involved. In September, Lewis’ son organized a 63-mile march from where his father was killed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Savannah.
“This march is my response to the grand jury’s failure to indict the trooper who killed my father,” Brook Bacon said before the march. “What the grand jury did was worse than what Jacob Gordon Thompson did when he shot my father in the head. It was murder when Thompson killed my father.
“But what this grand jury has killed is any faith Black people can have in this justice system. So I must appeal to the federal government like so many other people have had to do across American history,” Bacon said.
In December, relatives and their attorneys held a news conference at Liberty Plaza outside the Georgia State Capitol.
The attorneys for the Lewis family said the dashcam video showed Lewis motioning to Thompson, appearing to point to a house down the street where he planned to pull over. The video didn’t show the shooting, but a gunshot can be heard about two seconds after Thompson’s cruiser stopped, the attorneys said.
That video has not been made public. Thompson was not wearing a body camera at the time of the shooting.
Welcome to Masters week, and five questions that burn with varying brightness at the outset:
Can he or can’t he?
It has been more than 13 months since Woods crashed his car while on a reckless drive in Southern California. This time when he went into the trees, his short game couldn’t save him.
At this writing, Woods hasn’t declared whether this Masters would mark another return to golf that beggars belief. He tweeted out his intention Sunday to be on site to work his game and his body, calling his choice a “game-time decision.” Let the dangling continue.
On one hand, Augusta National is one long, hilly track, hardly the ideal terrain on which to stress test a reconstructed leg. On the other, as the scene of five of his major titles and the repository of some of his most dramatic moments, it is the ideal stage for a revival.
In ’19, Woods demonstrated it possible to win the Masters with a fused spine. Now he’s weighing a return to golf after nearly losing a leg in the crash. He’s running out of both repairable body parts and plausible comeback themes.
The thought of him playing again was unthinkable as recently as last month. Now he’s doing some stealthy recon missions at Augusta National and setting the golf world atwitter. To those who think too much attention is paid the man, prepare to find a deep, dark cave to inhabit for the next couple of days.
Riding on his decision is whether this will be the first Masters without both Woods and Phil Mickelson since 1994. Mickelson, of course, is assuredly out after his image suffered a high ankle sprain.
How long has it been? In 1994, Woods was in high school and Mickelson, just 23, was out with his own bum leg (no, he wasn’t kneecapped by his bookie, but rather hurt it while skiing).
To quote Butch Cassidy: Who are those guys?
Your world’s No. 1-ranked golfer is an alliterative long hitter named Scottie Scheffler. The guy has won three times since February and still might go unnoticed in the “10 items or less” line at the Publix on Washington Road.
He’s one of three winners on tour this year 25 or younger and one of five first-time winners (of Masters qualifying events) this wraparound season. There is some kind of class revolt going on within the PGA Tour that, frankly, has gotten a bit unseemly.
Only one player ranked in the top 10 at the beginning of this year — No. 10 Cam Smith — has won in 2022. You know him as The Players Championship winner sporting the hairstyle more common on “COPS” than on the Golf Channel.
If any tournament can bring back some form and decorum, it’s the Masters.
Whatever happened to Bryson Dechambeau’s plan to revolutionize golf?
An object of fascination throughout his previous five Masters appearances, as both amateur and pro, the most interesting man in golf has gone quiet and ordinary. Bryson Dechambeau missed nearly two months this year with a fractured hamate bone in his hand and a torn labrum in his hip. I’m no kinesiologist, but still feel rather comfortable saying that someone who swings like he wants to liquefy his joints is going to eventually succeed.
His own comeback is proceeding slowly. Dechambeau failed to get out of pool play in the World Golf Championships match play and missed the cut in Texas this week.
All his mad science and mad length has earned him one major title but has yet to translate to the Masters. His best career finish remains T-21 as an amateur in 2016. His average finish in four outings as a pro: 36.75. As far as the Masters goes, Dechambeau remains an outsider, like the radical trying to get somebody at the VFW hall to buy him a drink.
When will they move a tee box out to Aiken, S.C.?
Augusta National is a stubborn old fella still trying to get into his wedding suit. They just keep letting out the course more and more, the alterations barely keeping up with an ever-expanding game.
The latest for this tournament is an added 15 yards to No. 11, an already toothy par-4 that traditionally is among the hardest holes on the lot. And another 15 yards to the par-5 15th, among the relatively simpler challenges. Augusta National will play over 7,500 yards now.
Better put another plate on the leg press machine in the fitness trailer, boys.
Will the Rory watch ever end?
Do you know it has been nearly eight years since Rory Mcilroy last won a major championship? And forever since he has won a Masters?
The wait for Mcilroy to complete his career Grand Slam at the Masters has become interminable, like the wait for the next great heavyweight champ. An already likable gent, Mcilroy is becoming something of a Masters martyr, not in the Greg Norman mold just yet, but probing the fringes.
The betting public hasn’t completely cooled on his chances — Mcilroy remains among the favorites, just behind Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth. But we all grow impatient.
While remaining skeptical, let’s echo what two-time Masters winner Bubba Watson told Golfweek: “As a sports fan, I want Mcilroy to win one, right? There are just things that you want to happen not only as a sports fan, but now as a friend as well. I’d love to be there when he wins.”
Wouldn’t we all?