The suit names as defendants Kettering Moving & Storage Inc., moving van driver Vernon L. Bocock Jr. and the RTA, which Wagoner’s attorney wrote should reimburse Wagoner for the injuries he sustained Jan. 8, 2013 in a crash near Miller Lane in Butler Twp.
Wagoner was fired in June 2014 after police and RTA investigations found Wagoner lied about an alleged Feb. 24, 2014 attack in which he said a religious handbook in his pocket stopped bullets fired by an assailant. Wagoner had said he was stabbed and shot at twice in what he alleged was part of a gang initiation.
Wagoner’s suit alleges Bocock negligently ran a stop sign in his 2006 Chevrolet moving van and caused the collision at the corner of York Commons Boulevard and Center Commerce Drive. The suit said Kettering Moving & Storage is vicariously liable for Bocock’s alleged negligence.
A report published by WHIO.com after the 9 a.m. crash that day said the RTA driver was removed by a medic and taken to Miami Valley Hospital. The report said the force of the impact sent the RTA bus off the road, over a sidewalk and into the parking lot of an Office Depot store.
Wagoner’s suit also said that the RTA had a “right of subrogation for reimbursement of medical expenses and wages paid” to Wagoner. The suit asks for a jury trial.
No one answered the door at Wagoner’s home on Wednesday when a reporter went there seeking comments. Neither Wagoner’s attorney nor the RTA returned messages seeking comment. Kettering Moving & Storage Inc. declined comment.
In a detailed press conference last year, Dayton police Chief Richard Biehl said that key elements of Wagoner’s story about the alleged attack — in particular the sequence of events and ballistics tests on the gun said to be used in the shooting — could not have happened as described.
Asked last year about a potential motive for reporting the alleged assault, Biehl said Wagoner appeared to be in some financial distress. Montgomery County Auditor’s Office records show Wagoner owes the county in excess of $100,000 for property taxes on a dozen homes he owns in addition to his residence.
Biehl said that the police investigation was submitted to the city of Dayton’s Law Department, but the city prosecutor declined to charge Wagoner with a crime.
A video and audio recording of the incident by a device aboard the bus showed Wagoner had only 22 seconds to disarm two of the assailants, stab one of them with his own pen knife, fire at them with the bullets remaining in the handgun he said he had wrestled away from one of men, and travel 200 to 300 feet to get back on his bus. Wagoner then radioed in to the dispatcher, but did not appear to be out of breath or winded, Biehl said.
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