KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — New pictures and videos detail the Tennessee Highway Patrol's investigation into a 61-year-old man killed by a state-owned truck last July and raise questions about THP's use of body cameras during interactions with the public.
On July 31, 2023, a TDOT sprayer truck, a Ford F-350, ran over Donnie Brockwell as he slept under the overpass. Brockwell was sleeping in a sheet.
"I thought, you never know what's in it. So, I go around it," the driver is heard saying on the body camera video. "I was just idling back. I felt the truck kind of hit and go up. I thought I went around it. So I looked in the mirror and that's when I saw the sheet moving."
A TDOT supervisor called 911. Brockwell was taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Later in the body camera video, a THP trooper is seen asking another if he was "hot." After that, the trooper is seen adjusting his mic. Audio shuts off.
Wes Moster, the Department of Safety and Homeland Security Director of Communications, said body cameras should be turned off when troopers are communicating with other law enforcement officials. But, THP policy said cameras should be turned on to record all contacts with citizens, Moster said.
Scene video from another trooper shows his microphone is off when he is interacting with a local attorney and when he is speaking with TDOT employees, including the driver.
"They violated their own standard operating procedure in that the mic should have been on," said local attorney T. Scott Jones. "This driver would be, albeit a state employee, he is still part of the public relative to an investigation of this act."
The mic is later turned on when the trooper speaks with the driver at UT Medical Center while searching his phone.
Brockwell's surviving brother, Ricky Lee Brockwell, filed a complaint against the state of Tennessee seeking $300,000 in damages. The complaint accused the driver, a state employee, of negligence.
"Neither TDOT employee in the TDOT truck got out of the TDOT truck to determine whether a person was under the sheet that they ran over," the complaint said. "The TDOT employees in the truck that ran over Donnie Brockwell knew, or should have known, that the area where this accident occurred was frequently occupied by homeless."
The state of Tennessee, through the Attorney General's office, said Brockwell was the one who was negligent.
"The sole and proximate cause of any injury to and the death of Donnie Brockwell was the negligence of Donnie Brockwell for sleeping underneath a bridge where TDOT performs maintenance activities and for failing to be visible by sleeping under a sheet or mattress," the state's response said.
Jones said, by state law, $300,000 is the maximum the state can pay. Because Brockwell's family is asking for damages from the state, Jones said, they have to file a complaint with the Claims Commission of Tennessee.
An administrative judge, not a jury, will hear this case.
The Department of Treasury said the case is set for trial in 2025 if there's no resolution by then.
TDOT said it could not comment on the complaint because the agency does not comment on litigation.