BATON ROUGE – An East Feliciana Parish woman has filed a wrongful death suit against the city of Plaquemine and is seeking millions.
Ariel Barker, on behalf of Hannah Claire Barker and Ava Anthony Barker, filed a complaint on May 31 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana against city of Plaquemine, Mayor Edwin M. Reeves Jr., Kenny Payne, James Breaux, et al alleging that they violated the Fourth, Fifth and 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
According to the complaint, Hannah Claire Barker and Ava Anthony Barker are the children of decedent David Anthony Ourso Jr. The suit states that on June 1, 2016, Breaux and other Plaquemine police officers responded to a complaint of an individual screaming for help in a neighborhood, later identified as Ourso. The suit states the officers restrained Ourso and were indifferent to Ourso's need for medical care. Ourso later died during the incident, the suit states.
The plaintiff holds the city of Plaquemine, Reeves Jr., Payne, Breaux, et al. responsible because defendant law enforcement officials allegedly subjected plaintiff's decedent to false arrest, assault, negligent hiring and training, kidnapping and other counts.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks damages in the full sum of $6 million and for such other relief as the court may deem just and appropriate. She is represented by Shannon L. Battiste of Law Office of Shannon L. Battiste LLC in Port Allen and Harry R. Brown Jr. of The Law Office of Harry R Brown Jr. LLC in Baton Rouge.
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana case number 3:17-cv-00340