A sheriff’s deputy who directed two unlicensed teenagers to drive a defective commercial truck home cannot be liable for their subsequent deaths at a dangerous intersection in rural Adams County, a federal judge has found.

The estate of April Blackmon-Logan alleged Deputy Chad Jenkins created or increased the risk that Blackmon-Logan would be put in danger through his actions on the night of July 26, 2019. The lawsuit also contended that Sheriff Rick Reigenborn failed to enact policies that would have prevented the deaths of Blackmon-Logan and Leah Ford, both 18.

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U.S. District Court Chief Judge Philip A. Brimmer rejected the attempt of Blackmon-Logan’s estate, represented by her father, to claim Jenkins had violated Blackmon-Logan’s constitutional rights, when the deputy had at most acted recklessly or negligently.

“Although directing Ford and Blackmon-Logan to drive a malfunctioning truck that they did not know how to operate in an unfamiliar, rural area raised the risk that something catastrophic could happen to them,” Brimmer wrote in an Aug. 24 order, “the Estate has not shown that Deputy Jenkins’s conduct shocks the conscience or that Deputy Jenkins disregarded risks that he knew about.”

Brimmer’s decision comes nine months after another federal judge dismissed a similar lawsuit from Ford’s mother over her daughter’s death in the same incident.

Close to midnight on July 26, Jenkins pulled over the flatbed commercial pickup truck in which Blackmon-Logan and Ford were riding as passengers. Ford’s boyfriend, Michael Linnebur, was driving the truck, which belonged to his employer.

Jenkins allegedly found problems with the truck, including a defective headlight and tail light. He also placed Linnebur under arrest on an outstanding warrant, reportedly for a previous traffic violation. 

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The traffic stop took place in a remote area of Adams County around Imboden Road and East 88th Avenue. Although police told media at the time that Jenkins “allowed” the teenage girls to take over for Linnebur in driving the truck, the lawsuit alleged Jenkins “ordered” Ford to drive it home.

Reportedly, Jenkins did not ask to see the driver licenses of either Ford or Blackmon-Logan — both of whom were unlicensed. Instead, the deputy showed the girls how to operate the truck’s emergency flashers and turn the headlight high beams off and on, and sent them on their way.

“Jenkins took the foregoing actions with the intent to create a deceptively false sense of security in both Ford and the decedent, to give them confidence that the defective flatbed-commercial truck was safe to drive — even at night with non-working headlights and taillights,” the lawsuit from Blackmon-Logan’s estate said.

Reportedly, Linnebur warned the deputy that neither Ford nor Blackmon-Logan knew where they were. Several minutes later, the truck approached the intersection of East 88th Avenue and Highway 79. 9News reported the location was the site of multiple fatal crashes, given that only a stop sign governed the two high-speed roads. Ford did not stop, and a tractor trailer truck slammed into the girls’ vehicle and killed them.

The lawsuits against Jenkins alleged he had deprived the teenagers of their life and liberty under two legal theories: the “danger creation” theory and the “special relationship” doctrine. Danger creation allows a government official to be held liable if a third party deliberately inflicts injuries, as long as the government worker created the dangerous circumstances.

In contrast, a special relationship exists when the government exercises some form of custody over a person and is obligated to protect them from third parties.

Blackmon-Logan’s estate claimed Jenkins had ignored multiple immediate risks in telling the unlicensed teenagers to drive a defective commercial truck home, and they felt obligated to comply with the deputy’s orders.

“Bluntly, Deputy Jenkins’s conduct is akin to playing a game of Russian roulette,” wrote Hillary R. Ross, an attorney for Blackmon-Ford’s estate. “Any reasonable person, much less a trained Sheriff’s deputy, would realize that a passenger with an unlicensed, inexperienced driver in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, on a dark highway could easily be driving to her death.”

In November, U.S. District Court Senior Judge Lewis T. Babcock dismissed the related lawsuit from Ford’s estate. He explained that the danger creation theory generally applies to government officials’ role in the murder, assault or abuse inflicted by others. Ordering a driver to move a vehicle, only to have the driver ignore a stop sign and crash, did not fit under that framework, Babcock decided. Furthermore, there was no special, custodial relationship that required Jenkins to protect the girls.

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The deputy’s conduct “could be deemed negligent and clearly, in retrospect, ill-advised. But it does not rise to the level of outrageousness to shock the conscience,” Babcock wrote.

Brimmer’s reasoning in Blackmon-Logan’s case largely mirrored that of Babcock. Adams County had argued Jenkins could not have known a fatal accident was likely, and Brimmer agreed there were no prior court cases that held a deputy liable for a constitutional violation under similar circumstances.

Because Jenkins had not committed a violation, Brimmer also dismissed the claims against Reigenborn. The judge then declined to act on Blackmon-Logan’s remaining allegations of negligence, which arose entirely under Colorado law.

Attorneys for Blackmon-Logan’s estate did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the Adams County Sheriff’s Office declined to offer a statement, but confirmed Jenkins retired in 2021.

The case is Estate of April Blackmon-Logan v. Jenkins et al.