Mother of teen killed in crash involving police chase sues Saugus

The mother of a teenager killed in 2021 when a wrong-way driver crashed into her vehicle following a police pursuit in Saugus has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the town, two of its police officers, and the alleged robber they were chasing. 

Filed Monday in federal court, the lawsuit alleges Sgt. Michael Richards and Officer Sean Murphy’s “unreasonable and extremely dangerous pursuit” caused the collision that killed 19-year-old Ashley Forward. Forward’s mother, Lynn resident Michelle Luongo, originally filed the complaint in state court before the matter was transferred over to U.S. District Court in Boston. 

According to the lawsuit, Forward was struck head-on as she was driving southbound on Route 107 on June 9, 2021. That morning, police responded to an unarmed robbery at a 7-Eleven convenience store in Saugus, and the suspect — William Leger — allegedly fled the scene. 

Murphy and Richards spotted Leger’s vehicle and gave chase at an “increasingly high speed,” following Leger as he turned onto Route 107 and began driving in the wrong direction, the complaint alleges.

The “dangerous high-speed chase” exceeded 80 mph before Leger crashed into Forward’s vehicle, according to the lawsuit. The teen, who was fresh off her first year at Emmanuel College and en route to visit her grandmother at the time of the crash, died at the scene, Boston.com previously reported. 

“The continued pursuit of a suspect who had committed a nonviolent felony only exacerbated and intensified the extreme danger of the situation to the public and specifically to Ms. Forward, beyond reasonable law enforcement activity,” Luongo’s lawsuit states.

However, the Essex District Attorney’s Office said in a 2021 statement that Leger led police on a “brief pursuit,” with authorities ending the chase when the suspect turned onto Route 107 and began driving in the wrong direction. 

Online court records indicate Leger is awaiting trial on charges of murder, manslaughter, motor vehicle homicide by reckless operation, unarmed robbery, operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license, and receiving a stolen motor vehicle. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. 

According to the complaint, Leger was “well-known” to police in Saugus and other local departments and could have been located and arrested without a high-speed chase. The lawsuit alleges that the town failed to train, supervise, and discipline its officers regarding proper pursuit protocols. 

Richards and Murphy, the lawsuit states, “exhibited an extreme, arbitrary, and conscious-shocking disregard for the safety of drivers and members of the public.”

A lawyer for the town of Saugus and the two officers declined to comment on the complaint. It was not immediately clear whether Leger had retained an attorney for the civil lawsuit.