Lawsuit settled in 2006 chase

MAT-SU — A settlement of $100,000 will put to rest a lawsuit over a gruesome wreck that capped off a high-speed Wasilla Police Department car chase in 2006.

Jennifer Setters was seriously injured when Martha Harper hit her head-on as she ran from the law. Setters filed suit last year and, until the case was settled last week, was set to go to trial at the end of this month.

Keenan Powell, the attorney representing Setters, said the resolution was a fair assessment of the city’s culpability in the case.

“The drunk driver that the cops chased down the road would have had the lion’s share of the responsibility,” she said.

As for the city, Wasilla Mayor Verne Rupright said the decision on whether to settle wasn’t up to him or anybody else at city hall. The city’s insurer made that call.

“The insurance company picked to settle that part of it,” he said. “This is not saying there’s any fault on the part of the city.”

Rupright said he figures the insurance company just decided it was cheaper to pay the money than go to trial. He said he didn’t think the settlement would encourage more people to file suits. Or, at least, that the city wouldn’t get sued any more than it already does.

“Governments, cities, big corporations, are targets. That’s why we carry insurance, man,” Rupright.

And, having insurance, means the $100,000 settlement doesn’t come out of city coffers. It comes from the insurance company.

Powell said her position was that police were well aware of Harper’s recklessness.

“This lady was bouncing around the road at like 60 miles per hour, but they chased her and kept flying up on her and pushing her to go faster and faster,” she said. Officers should have backed off, she said.

Harper was first spotted just after 5 p.m. on Aug. 11, 2006, driving on Seward-Meridian Parkway from Bogard Road toward the Parks Highway.

Harper, “was weaving, tailgating, driving in and out of the ditches and passing vehicles on both sides of the roadway,” officer Doug Sonerholm, wrote at the time.

Wasilla Police Officer Jentry Crain also spotted Harper. Crain stepped into the road and managed to get her stopped with hand signals. He then motioned for her to pull over, Sonerholm wrote.

“Harper instead accelerated directly toward Crain as he stood in front of her truck, forcing him to jump out of the way to avoid being struck,” Sonerholm wrote.

After that, Harper ran a red light and got on the highway heading south.

Sonerholm’s affidavit speaks directly to the balancing act police departments have to play where pursuits are involved.

“Officers attempted to stay close enough to Harper to warn all the endangered motorists of her presence and to encourage her to stop, but not so close as to push her to greater speeds or take greater risks,” Sonerholm wrote.

Just before the Knik River Bridge, Harper clipped a pickup, crossed the median and hit Setters.

Keenan said that in addition to the suit against Wasilla, Setters is also suing her insurance company, GEICO, for not offering her uninsured or under-insured motorist coverage as required by state law.

“During this period of time if you purchased your insurance on the GEICO Web site they refused to offer it to you,” Powell said. “My client had no idea that as an Alaskan resident she was entitled to it.”

She said a resolution in that case is a long way off.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.