Mike Ellis

Anderson Independent Mail

Seneca police have sat on a marijuana charge against Tori Morton for two years in an effort to intimidate her from assisting a federal investigation into the 2015 police shooting that killed teenager Zach Hammond, a lawsuit alleges.

Morton was in the car with Hammond when he was shot by a Seneca police officer in a botched drug bust.

The lawsuit, filed on Morton's behalf in federal court in late July, alleges that shortly after the shooting on July 26, 2015, officers took Morton to several "undisclosed" locations to interview her without recording the interviews.

The lawsuit says she had no illegal drugs in her system and a baggie of marijuana found in the car's glovebox belonged to Hammond, not her.

Morton seeks unspecified damages from the Seneca Police Department, Chief John Covington and Mark Tiller, the former officer who shot Hammond. Tiller was fired more than a year after the shooting.

Covington did not responded to a request for comment Friday. Court records do not name an attorney for Tiller and he could not be reached for comment.

The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice was investigating the shooting as of earlier this year; officials with the department did not immediately respond Friday to a request for an update on the investigation.

Morton said the marijuana charges have lingered for two years as a form of leverage to discourage her from cooperating with the federal investigation, the lawsuit claims.

She experienced trauma during the shooting and afterward, as officers celebrated the shooting, with one officer giving Hammond's corpse a high-five, the suit alleges.

Hammond's family settled their civil claims against Covington, Tiller, the city and the Police Department more than a year ago for $2.15 million.

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Officers arranged an undercover drug deal in the Hardee's parking lot after a text message from Hammond's phone, but signed by Morton, was accidentally sent to a state Highway Patrol trooper.

The new lawsuit alleges that Hammond sent the text messages and used Morton's name.

Morton was on a first date with Hammond and was eating a chocolate dipped ice cream cone when Tiller raced into the parking lot in his police cruiser and charged on foot at Hammond's car with his gun drawn.

Hammond started backing out of the parking space, and video of the incident shows Tiller approaching the car and then firing into the driver's side window.

In a 2015 statement that cleared Tiller of any state criminal charges, then-Solicitor Chrissy Adams said he had not followed procedures and had escalated events but had not violated the law in the seconds between pulling up and shooting.

Follow Mike Ellis on Twitter @MikeEllis_AIM