Family whose baby died in crash gets $1.05M settlement with St. Clair Co. sheriff
A family whose baby died in a crash with a wrong-way driver fleeing law enforcement on a Saturday morning in 2022 will receive $1.05 million to settle its lawsuit against the officers.
Parents Tanisha Smith, 38, and Percy Bean Jr., 35, were getting onto Interstate 255 at the State Street on-ramp in East St. Louis at about 6:30 a.m. July 2, 2022, when their vehicle was hit head-on by a car exiting the highway in the wrong direction, killing their 8-month-old baby in the back seat, Marqiest Bean.
The family’s wrongful death lawsuit accused St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department deputies who initiated the pursuit — Sean Schmidt and Christian Gatlin — of “creating life-threatening conditions to innocent bystanders,” in violation of their training and departmental policy.
In its responses to the lawsuit in St. Clair County Circuit Court, county officials denied the allegations and argued the deputies were not actively involved in a pursuit at the time of the crash.
St. Clair County filed a third-party complaint alleging the Cahokia Heights Police Department should contribute to any damages because the agency took over the chase just before the crash.
Cahokia Heights police officer Jerry Davis was the lead officer when the pursuit reached I-255, according to the county’s complaint. The county acknowledged Gatlin provided backup to Davis as a secondary unit.
Court documents state Davis and Gatlin entered I-255 driving northbound in the southbound lanes from Camp Jackson Road in pursuit of the fleeing car.
They said they reduced speed, deactivated their lights and sirens and veered to the side of the road because the suspect vehicle was out of sight. They exited the highway at the next available ramp to Mousette Lane. The collision happened on a ramp about 4 miles away.
Smith and Bean argued “extensive” evidence existed that a crash was reasonably foreseeable.
They pointed to testimony from an Illinois State Police trooper, who said one of the reasons officers are not supposed to chase someone the wrong way down the interstate is the danger of the suspect crashing when they exit the highway via an on-ramp.
“Continuing this pursuit, including the wrong way down the road, was reckless and could do exactly what happened here, get somebody killed,” the family stated in a court document.
Smith and Bean filed a motion Wednesday asking St. Clair County Circuit Judge Heinz Rudolf to approve their settlement agreement with the county following court-ordered mediation. It includes the following terms:
- St. Clair County would “contribute the balance of its self-insured retention,” which is $300,000 for law enforcement liability, according to its 2024 audit
- Cahokia Heights would pay $50,000 to settle the county’s third-party complaint for contribution
- County insurance would pay the remainder of the settlement amount
The accused wrong-way driver, Rashad Alston, 29, of St. Louis, faces charges of reckless homicide, aggravated reckless driving and leaving the scene of an accident involving death and injuries in a separate criminal case that remains ongoing in St. Clair County.
Alston’s lawyer, Madelyn Daley, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The family also did not respond to requests for comment before press time. Their lawyers declined to comment.
Smith previously spoke to KMOV about the crash a little over a month after it happened.
“To the drivers, you changed our life completely, forever, within the blink of an eye,” she said at the time.
Deputies accused of violating policy
On the day of the crash, Schmidt and Gatlin responded to a 911 call alleging an active armed home invasion at 116 Howard Drive in Belleville. The deputies tried to stop a car matching the description of the suspects’ vehicle on nearby Eiler Road, but it fled.
The St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department vehicle pursuit policy states that officers are only allowed to chase a vehicle for two reasons:
- They have reasonable suspicion that the driver or an occupant of that vehicle has committed a violent felony
- There is evidence of outrageous, reckless driving possibly in association with driving under the influence, which was observed before the pursuit started
Sheriff’s department policy requires officers to terminate pursuits when “the danger to the public or the pursuing deputy outweighs the necessity for immediate apprehension of the suspect.” They should consider the area, weather conditions, the presence of other traffic and the speed of the pursuit, according to the policy.
Armed home invasion is a Class X felony, the state’s most serious felony classification.
But Smith and Bean argued in court filings that the deputies should have ended their pursuit when they learned through radio communications that the alleged suspects never entered the 911 caller’s house. Court documents state that deputies received this information when the pursuit was on Triple Lakes Road, before reaching the highway.
The alleged crime was “at most suspicious activity,” the family contended in a motion.
The city of Cahokia Heights stated that it searched its records but could not locate any reports related to the pursuit in response to a public records request. St. Clair County denied the Belleville News-Democrat’s request for sheriff’s department reports because those records are part of an active criminal case.
“Disclosure of evidence of the crime currently being prosecuted creates a substantial likelihood that the defendant will be deprived of a fair trial or impartial hearing,” the county stated.
A status conference in Alston’s criminal case is scheduled for March 31.
