The mother of Karon Hylton-Brown’s one-year-old daughter has filed a lawsuit on her behalf against D.C. and five police officers. Hylton-Brown died in a moped crash after police chased him in Brightwood Park last October. She is asking for damages of up to $100 million.

The suit, filed Wednesday, alleges that the five Metropolitan Police Department officers involved in the chase did so with “conscious disregard for an extreme risk of death or serious bodily injury to Karon Hylton.” It also alleges that MPD officers have a pattern of harassing and chasing Black motorcyclists — and that at least one of the officers who chased Hylton-Brown prior to his death, Terence Sutton, was known for this behavior.

The filing comes a month after Sutton and MPD lieutenant Andrew Zabavsky were indicted on charges related to Hylton-Brown’s death. Sutton, an officer with MPD’s crime suppression unit team, was indicted on a D.C. charge of second-degree murder and federal charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice, and Zabavsky was indicted on federal charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Both are currently on administrative leave from MPD and have been served notice of an intent to suspend them indefinitely without pay.

Amaala Jones-Bey is filing the lawsuit on her daughter’s behalf, known as ZB in court documents. Hylton-Brown’s daughter was three months old at the time of his death; his friends and family said at the time that he had hopes of becoming a firefighter and starting a career to support his family.

The charging documents in the local and federal indictments allege that Sutton’s three-minute chase — at times driving double the speed limit in an unmarked police car with three other officers — was done in “conscious disregard” for Hylton-Brown’s life. Zabavsky, who was named in the documents as Sutton’s supervising lieutenant, allegedly pursued Hylton-Brown in a separate, marked police car.

The charging documents say the two officers failed to take the typical steps to collect evidence after a traffic crash incident, like preserving the scene or interviewing witnesses. They also claim that both officers turned off their body-worn cameras and had a private conversation before they left the scene — and later provided a “misleading” account of the incident to their watch commander. Sutton allegedly drove over evidence from Hylton-Brown’s moped as he was leaving the scene, according to the documents.

Jones-Bey’s lawsuit highlights many of the allegations in the charging documents as grounds for damages.

A lawyer for Sutton, J. Michael Hannon, responded to WAMU/DCist’s inquiry about the lawsuit by sending a previous response he had written to Sutton’s indictment. He pushed back on allegations of a coverup, writing in a letter to D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee that “You and every officer in your command also know how ludicrous it is to allege that the nature of the events of that night could be covered up from scrutiny by your command staff.”

Hannon also made claims similar to those that he made on behalf of Sutton in his first federal court appearance, where he argued that his client was attempting to make a legal stop and that police were concerned Hylton-Brown was armed. Prosecutors have pushed back on these claims, responding that there was “absolutely no evidence” that Hylton-Brown had a gun that night.

WAMU/DCist has reached out to the Office of the Attorney General and the D.C. Mayor’s office for comment on the suit but did not hear back by publication.

The lawsuit also links Hylton-Brown’s death to a broader MPD pattern of allegedly chasing and intimidating Black bikers.

“The Hylton case is not about the spectacular result of the United States Attorney’s Office coming in and finding obstruction of justice with high-ranking police officers,” said Jones-Bey’s attorney, David Shurtz, in an interview. Instead, he emphasized, the case is “about the pattern and practice of targeting Black bikers with deadly force en masse.”

MPD policy prohibits officers from chasing people in their patrol cars, with the exception of cases where they are chasing a suspect in a felony who poses a threat of serious physical harm or if they have no other options. Earlier this year, D.C. Councilmembers introduced a bill that would turn that MPD policy into law.

Shurtz has represented the families of other Black men who died in dirt bike collisions with MPD vehicles — including Jeffrey Price and Arnell Robinson. As part of those lawsuits, Shurtz collected about 230 sworn affidavits from dirt bike riders in D.C. in support of the claim that MPD officers have a pattern of targeting Black bikers in the District. As part of Wednesday’s lawsuit, Shurtz says he has collected an additional 60 affidavits to bolster these claims.

“The District of Columbia should be very much aware of the perils of punishing motorbike riders by taking aggressive actions against such motorbike riders,” the lawsuit reads. “This tragic pattern of MPD abuses in targeting young black bikers with deadly force, in contravention of their civil rights, has resulted in at least five unnecessary deaths.” In addition to Price and Robinson, the suit cites the experiences of DeOnté Rawlings, Terrence Sterling, and Amir Brooks.

The lawsuit alleges that Hylton-Brown’s brother, Robbie, had also been chased on his motorbike by Sutton “a number of times”; Karen Hylton, Hylton-Brown’s mother, made the same allegation in an interview with WAMU/DCist last year.

In the days following his death, friends and family members said they had witnessed or heard about police officers — including Sutton specifically — harassing Hylton-Brown and his friends. It’s evident from the body camera footage that Sutton likely knew Hylton-Brown personally, because he can be heard calling out his name in the audio.

Martin Austermuhle contributed reporting to this story. 

Previously:
D.C. Police Officer Indicted On Murder, Conspiracy Charges In Death Of Karon Hylton-Brown