The family of the Black man, who was fatally shot during a traffic stop in Georgia just years after being exonerated from a wrongful conviction, is filing a lawsuit against the sheriff’s department and the officer in question.
On the morning of October 16, 2023, Leonard Cure was pulled over while driving through Camden County, Ga. According to dash camera footage released following the incident, Officer Buck Aldridge ordered Cure to exit his vehicle to which he complied. However, while Cure and Aldridge went back and forth with questions, the officer tried to grab his arm to arrest him and Cure snatched his arm away. In the video, Cure was then ordered to put his hands on the vehicle which he did.
However, he appeared to refuse to place his hands behind his back, leading the officer to shock him with a Taser at point-blank range in the back. According to the footage, the two got into a scuffle and wrested to the ground. Aldridge then shot Cure in the chest.
Cure died on the scene.
He had just been exonerated from an armed robbery conviction in 2020 after spending two decades in prison. The lawsuit says he was given monetary compensation in 2023 for the years he spent incarcerated.
Now, civil rights attorneys Benjamin Crump and Harry Daniels argue Cure was another victim of the injustice system but in particular, the alleged unsupervised and undisciplined violent behavior of Aldridge.
“On May 21, 2018, Defendant Jim Proctor hired Defendant Aldridge as a deputy at the Camden County Sheriff’s Office. At the time Defendant Proctor hired Defendant Aldridge, Defendant Proctor knew or should have known that Defendant Aldridge had a propensity for violence and had a history of using unlawful force and excessive force while on duty as a law enforcement officer,” the suit reads.
The lawsuit documents several instances where Aldridge was accused of excessive force. In 2014, he received a warning from Kingsland Police Department, his former employer, about their use of force policy and was eventually fired in 2017. In 2022, the suit says Alridge struck another Black man while he wasn’t resisting and tased him twice.
In addition to his dirt, the suit holds Sheriff Jim Proctor accountable for the overall alleged misconduct of the Camden County Sheriff’s Department. The suit cites several incidents between traffic stops and jail incidents that left both white and Black people with serious black-and-blues or even staple stitches to the skull.
“This isn’t some isolated incident. We’re talking about an officer with a long history of brutality and violence within a department with a long history of brutality and violence. They have blood on their hands and it’s time to hold them accountable,” said Daniels.
The suit accuses Aldridge of violating Cure’s Fourth Amendment rights through use of excessive force, assault and battery and wrongful death. The suit also makes a claim against Proctor alleging he did not properly hire, train and supervise his employees.
Cure’s family demands $17 million in damages and trial by jury.