A lawsuit has been filed against Nicole Linton, the traveling nurse who killed six people after she crashed her car into a busy intersection in Los Angeles, California, last year. The lawsuit was filed by one of the victim’s parents.
According to RadarOnline, Sharita Randleston, the mother of 23-year-old Asherey Ryan, filed the lawsuit against Linton and is seeking damages for wrongful death and negligence. AMN Healthcare Services Inc. and Kaiser are also named in the civil lawsuit, where she is seeking damage for negligent hiring, training, supervision, retention and entrustment.
Linton reportedly drove her Mercedes-Benz into an intersection at 130 mph on Aug. 4, 2022, killing Ryan, who was pregnant, as well as her reported boyfriend, 24-year-old Reynold Lester, the couple’s 11-month-old son, Alonzo, 38-year-old Lynette Noble and 43-year-old Nathesia Lewis.
The then-37-year-old crashed into several vehicles after she failed to stop at a red light at the intersection of La Brea Avenue and Slauson Avenue. Linton is facing six murder charges as well as five counts of gross vehicular manslaughter and could spend the rest of her life in prison if convicted on all charges.
According to FOX 11 News, Linton’s attorney Jacqueline Spargana claims that the nurse had suffered from a seizure and psychotic break before the crash and froze. Spargana also denied that her client had been drinking or doing drugs prior to the fatal crash.
“The misinformation about Nicole should be put to rest for good. Namely, she was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs; she does not have 13 prior car accidents; she does not have a prior DUI; she was not in a fight with her boyfriend (she does not even have a boyfriend); and she was not suicidal,” said the statement. “Rather, she was suffering from mental health issues that culminated in a seizure. Period.”
Randleston claims in the lawsuit that the Houston-based Linton was working as a traveling nurse and was employed by AMN to work through the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan at the West Los Angeles Kaiser Medical Center when the crash occurred.
The court documents state that Linton’s employers “ignored the risks of employing her so that they could charge exorbitant fees and to alleviate extreme staffing shortages in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic” and that Linton was “unfit and dangerous” to work for Kaiser “due to her numerous prior motor vehicle accidents, prior acts of self-harm, multiple arrests for violent behavior, and multiple involuntary commitments to psychiatric hospitals.”
Randleston also noted that Linton displayed behavior weeks prior to the incident that would have disqualified her from working as a nurse, according to the California Board of Registered Nursing guidelines and the California Business and Professions Code. She also has said that the nurse’s “deteriorating mental state was observed by her Kaiser co-workers” after she came back from her lunch break on the day of the crash. She is seeking an unspecified amount in damages.
Linton was arrested in Houston, Texas, in 2018 following a psychotic episode where she claimed she was the daughter of Bob Marley and screamed, “Get my turtles!” from the back of a patrol car, according to Law & Crime.
The Los Angeles Times also noted that Linton lives with bipolar disorder and was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric ward when she was 32. She also jumped out of a window on the first floor of her apartment in Houston in 2019 while scratching her arms and chest and ran naked through her complex months later.
A neurologist who specializes in epilepsy and seizures hired by the defense, Dr. David Millet, stated that Linton described her mental state on the morning of the fatal crash as “anxious.”
“On the morning of the accident, she describes inability to complete her nursing responsibilities accurately and/or in a timely fashion,” wrote Millet. “She became very anxious that morning as she fell behind in her duties, compounded with the stressors of caring for patients with physically unsettling medical problems and ongoing tensions with her co-workers.”
Millet added that Linton most likely suffered an “abrupt loss of consciousness, including loss of both memory and awareness of her immediate circumstances” for minutes and “experienced a seizure.”
At the time of the crash, Randleston — who lived with several of the victims — told NBCLA News that she couldn’t go home.
“I’m so hurt I don’t know what to do,” said Randleston. “That woman took three, four lives from me that I can never get back. Nothing can ever bring my babies back. Nothing.”
As for the lawsuit, Kaiser, Linton and AMN denied any wrongdoing. In addition, Linton pled not guilty to the murder and manslaughter charges.
