Jill Disis

jill.disis@indystar.com

A police sergeant used an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department database to track his ex-wife’s whereabouts and gun her down, according to a lawsuit filed by the woman’s son.

The son of Kimberlee Jo Carmack, an Indianapolis police officer killed by her ex-husband in April, filed a federal lawsuit Monday against the city and the IMPD, claiming the department failed to protect her and left her defenseless against her killer.

Carmack was fatally shot at her Westside home April 17 by IMPD Sgt. Ryan Anders, who then shot and killed himself. They had married in 2010 and divorced in October 2013.

Dustin H. Carmack, who is also an IMPD officer, filed a federal lawsuit Monday saying the department violated his mother’s civil rights.

“They told her they were going to protect her,” said Jeffrey McQuary, Carmack’s attorney. “They told her there would be guards. They told her that they were monitoring Ryan Anders and would tell her if he ever got close to her. And they didn’t do any of those things.”

The lawsuit accuses IMPD of bungling many aspects of a domestic-violence investigation that began March 12, more than a month before Carmack was killed.

Instead of firing Anders, the lawsuit says, IMPD Chief Rick Hite reassigned him to administrative duties, “thus leaving him with police powers and access to the resources and personnel of IMPD that he could use to locate Carmack.”

Officials also took firearms away from both Anders and Carmack, the lawsuit says, “thereby leaving the innocent party defenseless against attacks by the other member of the police department.”

Some of those details, including the resources the lawsuit says Anders used to track Carmack’s whereabouts, were never disclosed publicly by IMPD officials. Though Hite told reporters in April that Carmack had been given a safe place to live during the investigation, he did not comment at the time about why she returned to her Westside home on the day she was killed or how Anders knew to look for her there.

The lawsuit claims Anders tracked his ex-wife using two internal systems: the WISE database to locate her at home and the Z Client communications system to track her at work.

The suit says the WISE database “is accessible only to supervisors such as Anders.” According to the IMPD, WISE is a database used to monitor employees’ work status. It includes information such as emergency contacts and addresses.

The Z Client system is a mobile data computer system used by officers in their squad cars.

A protective order granted March 31 prohibited Anders from any contact with Carmack. The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office told The Indianapolis Star in April that it knew of no violations of that order before she was killed. The lawsuit, however, claims he continued to stalk her.

“My client is a policeman. He comes from a family of police officers,” McQuary said. “One thing he very much wants to see out of this lawsuit is a better policy in the department for dealing with officer-on-officer domestic abuse. It’s pretty clear that the department was just wholly unable to deal with this.”

Hite said Monday he could not comment about the specific claims made in the lawsuit, including the allegations about Anders’ use of internal databases to track his ex-wife.

“At this stage, we can’t go into all we did to safeguard this family,” he said. “This is not an easy time, and we can’t discuss much about the lawsuit. We’re very clear in our message that we’ll reach out to anyone in need.”

Last month, Dustin H. Carmack also filed a tort claim notice with the city, indicating his desire to sue on behalf of himself and his mother. At the time, that notice accused IMPD of negligence that caused the “wrongful death of Kimberlee Jo Carmack.”

McQuary said at a later date, he and his client will amend the lawsuit to include additional claims of negligence that were first mentioned in the tort claim filed in October. In addition to the negligence claim, the notice also sought “not less than $700,000” in damages.

Star reporter Tim Evans contributed to this story.

Call Star reporter Jill Disis at (317) 444-6137. Follow her on Twitter: @jdisis.