There was no reason to fire that weapon. He was trying to kill this woman. There was no reason to do it. – Robert Sykes, a Salt Lake attorney representing Johnson

SALT LAKE CITY — Kristine Biggs Johnson knows what she did that night was wrong.

But she doesn't believe she deserved to be shot in the head for it by police.

"Watching that video, I don't see (police) in danger. I see I'm misbehaving. But I think it was uncalled for to shoot," she said Thursday during a press conference announcing a civil lawsuit.

Johnson, who went by Biggs in 2012 but now goes by her maiden name of Johnson, filed a lawsuit against Morgan County Sheriff's Sgt. Daniel Peay and Morgan County on Thursday. She claims her civil rights were violated when Peay used unnecessary excessive force on her by firing one shot into her car, striking the left side of her face and "destroying" her left eye.

"There was no reason to fire that weapon. He was trying to kill this woman. There was no reason to do it," said Robert Sykes, a Salt Lake attorney representing Johnson.

The lawsuit claims Peay used "unreasonable, excessive, and dangerous deadly force," and deprived Johnson of her due process. The suit also names Morgan County for failing to provide Peay with sufficient training and supervision.

In November of 2012, Johnson was moving from Wyoming to California to be with family. She left Evanston with all her belongings, her dog and a full bottle of vodka.

Sykes admits Johnson was drinking that night and that it was wrong. Johnson said leaving Wyoming was the last thing she remembers before waking up in a hospital bed in Ogden. She has no recollection of the events in between. She does not know whether her memory loss was because of "blacking out" due to the alcohol consumption or from the trauma caused by the shooting.

A Morgan County sheriff's deputy attempted to pull Johnson over on I-84 for having one headlight out. She ignored the deputies overhead red and blue lights and siren, however, and continued driving. Twice, Johnson performed U-turns and changed her direction of travel instead of pulling over. Eventually, she started heading down Weber Canyon. By this time, the Utah Highway Patrol joined in the chase, which was not high speed. Troopers set up tire spikes near the area known as Horseshoe Bend on I-84, and those severely damaged three of Johnson's tires. But she continued driving.

About 7 miles after her tires were spiked, Johnson became blocked in by three police vehicles in Davis County, but she continued to try to escape. By the time the chase came to an end, police said the left side of her vehicle was riding completely on its rims. She hit Peay's vehicle "on the passenger side at a very low speed," according to her lawsuit.

At the time of the incident, investigators said Johnson hit at least two police cars, one of them a couple of times, as she continued to try and get away from being boxed in by police vehicles.

Dashboard camera video of the incident, which can be found on YouTube, shows Peay standing outside his vehicle. He points his weapon at Johnson and orders her to stop.

"He was not in danger of being struck by Ms. Johnson's vehicle and was absolutely at no risk of serious bodily injury or death," the lawsuit states.

Sykes said Johnson's truck was moving less than 5 mph when Peay fired one shot through the windshield from about 12 to 15 feet away.

"This officer pointed his gun at her head with the intent to kill her," Sykes said, calling it a "quintessential" example of use of excessive force that "cries out for justice."

Because neither Peay nor anyone around him were in imminent danger, the use of deadly force in this case was not justified, Sykes said.

Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings agreed. Following an investigation, Rawlings determined that the use of deadly force was not "squarely justified" in the shooting.

Rawlings wrote in his 2013 decision that Peay believed he was "protecting life from an aggressor in a vehicle who was not going to stop." But Rawlings said his office "cannot and will not say that the shooting of Kristine Biggs (Johnson) is squarely justified."

Still, prosecutors did not file any criminal charges against the sergeant.

Johnson said she remembers waking up in the hospital after being shot and initially feeling a brace around her neck.

"I reached up and felt all the bandages on my head and had to ask all the nurses why it was there," she recalled Thursday.

That's when she learned her left eye was gone.

Johnson later pleaded guilty to failure to stop at the command of a police officer, a third-degree felony, and driving under the influence of alcohol, a class B misdemeanor. She was sentenced to zero to five years in prison and 180 days in jail, but both terms were suspended by 2nd District Judge Michael Allphin in favor of three years of probation. She was also sentenced to 42 days in jail and given credit for the 42 days she had already served.

Johnson wiped away tears as she watched the video being played in Sykes' office Thursday. She said it was like "watching a stranger."

"It's bad because I look at that and I think about what happened, and I can't believe that I would do something like that. What I did was wrong," she admitted. "I'm sorry. My actions that night were what they were. I'm hurt that they shot me. But the bottom line is I am sorry for my actions that caused this."

Although she is not necessarily angry at the Morgan County Sheriff's Office, she still believes the shooting was not justified.

The medical bills for Johnson have stacked up over the past two years. She hopes to soon have another surgery in preparation of getting a prosthetic eye. Today, she lives in California and is focusing on her family and job as an assistant dog trainer at a Petco store. She said she still has problems with depth perception and night vision.

People, children particularly, initially don't believe her when she tells them she doesn't have an eye under the patch that she wears, she said. But they are always sympathetic after discovering she's telling the truth.

"I don't always tell people how I lost it, I just tell them I lost it in an accident."

Sykes is also the attorney for the mother of Darrien Hunt, who was shot and killed by two Saratoga Springs police officers while running from them and carrying a 3-foot sword. Sykes contends the use of excessive force in that case was also unconstitutional because neither the officers nor the surrounding public were in imminent danger as Hunt was fleeing from the officers. The Utah County Attorney's Office determined the shooting to be legally justified. Sykes is expected to file a civil lawsuit in that case next week.

Email: preavy@deseretnews.com

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