Columbia man sues Richland Co. sheriff after being injured in head-on crash
A Richland County man who suffered a broken leg in a head-on crash is suing the Richland County sheriff and a deputy.
A lawsuit accuses law enforcement of escalating a minor traffic stop into a high-speed chase that, the plaintiff says, turned a busy Columbia roadway into a danger zone and ended with an innocent driver’s life upended.
The suit, filed May 14 in the Richland County Court of Common Pleas and later lodged in federal court records, was brought by Charles Barnes, a Columbia-area resident. It names Leon Lott, in his official capacity as sheriff, and Deputy Luke Martin, both individually and in his official capacity.
At the center of the complaint is an Aug. 2, 2024, pursuit that the lawsuit says began over a traffic violation as small as a driver’s failure to use a turn signal, then rapidly escalated into a chase at speeds that the plaintiff’s lawyer says were wildly out of proportion to the alleged offense.
Barnes is being represented by J.C. Nicholson, III of McWhirter, Bellinger and Associates.
The department did not respond to a request for comment, per its usual practice of not commenting on pending litigation.
According to the complaint, Deputy Martin — who had received his certificate from the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy less than a year earlier — attempted a traffic stop around 9:46 p.m. on U.S. Highway 176/River Drive. The driver, identified as Wesley Alexander Anderson, did not stop and fled, the suit says.
In 2016, Anderson was arrested in Lexington County after committing a string of armed robberies. Although he was found guilty and sentenced to seven years in prison, his sentence was suspended in lieu of three years of probation, according to court records.
From there, the lawsuit paints a picture of a pursuit barreling through a “heavily traveled” part of the city: Martin and Anderson allegedly reached more than 85 miles per hour in a 35-mile-per-hour zone, and Martin’s own incident report, the suit says, indicated Anderson topped 100 miles per hour.
The chase continued even as the fleeing driver ran red lights and drove into oncoming traffic, the lawsuit claims.
Barnes, according to the complaint, was traveling west in a 1995 Buick LeSabre with the right of way when Anderson — still being pursued — maneuvered around stopped vehicles, ran a red light and crossed into Barnes’s lane, striking his car head-on.
A South Carolina Highway Patrol report cited in the complaint put Anderson’s speed at about 55 miles per hour at impact, according to the suit.
Barnes suffered a fractured right femur, the suit says, and his vehicle was totaled.
The lawsuit brings a negligence and gross negligence claim under the South Carolina Tort Claims Act, arguing that deputies failed to use proper discretion, ignored safer alternatives, and did not adequately weigh the risk to the public during a pursuit over a misdemeanor-level traffic violation.
It also raises a federal civil-rights claim, alleging the chase and resulting crash amounted to objectively unreasonable conduct and “excessive force,” and asserting that the sheriff’s office failed to properly train and supervise deputies on pursuit tactics — a claim that, if proven, can expose a government entity to liability for unconstitutional policies or customs.
Barnes is seeking damages to be determined by a jury, as well as attorneys’ fees and costs under federal law, the complaint says.
