Ben Crump announces intent to sue Georgia deputy who shot exonerated Florida man

Leonard Cure’s family said they lost their son and their brother twice — both times at the hands of those who enforce the law.

The first time they lost Cure was about 20 years ago, his mother Mary Cure said Tuesday, when he was convicted of an armed robbery and spent over 16 years of his life in prison for it, only to be found innocent and released. The second time, not long after he was freed, they lost him forever.

Civil rights attorneys Ben Crump and Harry Daniels announced at a news conference in Georgia on Tuesday afternoon alongside Cure’s mother, brothers and sister and the president of the Camden County NAACP the family’s intent to sue the Camden County Sheriff’s Office deputy who shot and killed Leonard Cure in the southern county, less than an hour north of Jacksonville, on Oct. 16.

Cure, 53, was the first man to be exonerated by the Broward State Attorney’s Office’s Conviction Review Unit. He was released from prison in April 2020 and officially exonerated of the armed robbery in December 2020.

Staff Sgt. Buck Aldridge pulled Cure over for speeding on Interstate 95 in the southern Georgia county that morning shortly before 7:30 a.m. A violent struggle ensued, dashboard camera and body-worn camera video released by the Sheriff’s Office showed, until Aldridge shot Cure once and he fell to the ground.

Crump, who worked on the high-profile civil rights cases of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black citizens whose deaths involved police officers, said Cure’s family is seeking $16 million for Cure’s wrongful death — a million dollars for every year that Cure was wrongfully held in prison in Florida.

“They thought that they would have 16 years with him at least after he had been taken from them wrongfully … They had just barely got him back,” Crump said.

Captain Larry Bruce, a spokesperson for the Camden County Sheriff’s Office, said in an email shortly before the start of the news conference Tuesday afternoon that the Sheriff’s Office “has not been provided any document regarding this case.”

Daniels said the notice of intent was mailed Monday. The state of Georgia requires notices of intent to be filed in cases involving a sheriff’s office ahead of the official filing a lawsuit.

From the moment Aldridge pulled Cure over until the moment he was taken away on a stretcher, the video showed an intense encounter that quickly escalated. Aldridge exited his patrol vehicle and shouted forcefully at Cure four times to get out of his truck, which Cure complied with.

Cure immediately told Aldridge once stepping out, “I ain’t doing s—.” Less than a minute into their interaction, Aldridge told Cure he would shock him with his Taser if he didn’t move to the back of the truck.

The body-worn camera video showed Cure, who is Black, walk to the back of his truck as Aldridge, who is white, keeps his Taser pointed at him. Aldridge then called over radio for backup, reporting that Cure was not complying.

Stills from dashboard camera footage of Camden County Sheriff’s Office Staff Sgt. Buck Aldridge pulling over Leonard Cure for speeding on Monday, Oct. 16, 2023. A fight began and Aldridge shot Cure, who died. (Camden County Sheriff’s Office/Courtesy) Aldridge ordered Cure to put his hands behind his back because he was under arrest for speeding and reckless driving. Cure kept his hands on the truck and questioned why he would be arrested rather than cited.

Aldridge deployed his Taser and shouted at Cure to put his hands behind his back while stunning him. Cure then turned on the deputy, flinging his arms. The fight began on the shoulder of the highway as cars passed.

Cure gripped Alrdridge’s head and upper body during the fight and continued struggling with him after the deputy hit his leg with a baton. The baton appeared to have no effect on Cure. He grabbed Aldridge’s head while bending over him, forcing the deputy into a backbend. That is when Aldridge shot him.

First responders arrived shortly after and started attempting to save Cure’s life. Aldridge sobbed as they worked on Cure in front of his patrol car, the videos showed.

Daniels said at the news conference that Aldridge escalated the encounter. He said Cure had “just as much right to stand his ground” as the deputy did did when Aldridge shocked him.

“Leonard complied with him. He told him to put his hands on the back of the truck, and he did. He said turn his head, and he did. He told him to put his hands behind his back, and before Leonard had an opportunity to put his hands up, he tased him,” Daniels said.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel consulted use-of-force experts to review the videos. They said that Aldridge’s demeanor from the start of the encounter could have been different, possibly avoiding the deadly use of force, and that the shooting was justified once Cure appeared to overpower the deputy.

Deputy previously fired

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation began an investigation after Cure’s shooting and will forward its completed case file to the Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office.

Bruce, the Sheriff’s Office spokesperson, said the deputy remains on administrative leave while the GBI’s investigation is pending, as is their policy.

Aldridge was hired by the Camden County Sheriff’s Office nine months after he was fired from another agency in the county in August 2017 for a traffic stop where he threw a woman to the ground and handcuffed her, The Associated Press reported.

The offense Aldridge was fired from the Kingsland Police Department for was his third excessive use of force incident since 2014, according to personnel records obtained by the Associated Press. He said he was fired on his Sheriff’s Office job application.

Attorneys Crump and Daniels and Cure’s family said Aldridge’s history of excessive force should have prohibited him from getting his job in Camden County.

“If the policies would have been followed, the practices that you lay out in your handbooks would have been adhered to, mother Cure, we would not be here today,” Daniels said, turning to Cure’s mother. “But unfortunately, we are here because injustice is afoot in Camden County.”

A still image from a deputy’s body camera video provided by the Camden County Sheriff’s Office to the Associated Press shows Staff Sgt. Buck Aldridge following a chase and arrest on June 24, 2022. (Camden County Sheriff’s Office via AP) Cure’s brother Michael Cure said his brother’s birthday was on Thanksgiving. He said his brother was “an exceptional individual who did not deserve what he received in Camden County.”

“I want justice for my brother, and justice for my brother looks like this guy going to jail for at least 16 years, which is what my brother served for doing nothing,” he said.

Cure’s exoneration

It was a questionable witness identification that tied Cure to the crime for which he lost 16 years of his free life, a review by the State Attorney’s Office unit and an outside panel of attorneys said.

The identification of Cure was “the most contested issue of this case,” the CRU’s memo said, and the only evidence connecting him to the robbery.

A man robbed a Walgreens in Dania Beach at gunpoint on Nov. 10, 2003, and got away with less than $2,000 about 7:30 a.m. But an ATM receipt showed Cure was at a bank about three miles away at 6:52 a.m., and his boss said that Cure was at work by 8 a.m. with no unusual signs, the memo said.

Two employees were the only people at the store during the robbery, and one of them struggled to identify Cure, the memo said.

Cure’s first trial resulted in a hung jury. He was convicted at a second trial and sentenced to life in prison in 2004 as a habitual felony offender because of his prior criminal record, including charges of grand theft of a motor vehicle, battery on a law enforcement officer or first responder and escape in Miami-Dade County and a cocaine-related charge in Hamilton County. His case was affirmed on appeal four times, the CRU’s memo said.

After the State Attorney’s Office review, Cure was officially exonerated in December 2020.

“The issues we find most troublesome are those surrounding how Cure became a suspect in the first place,” the memo said. “Seemingly, a man who had no connection to a Walgreens robbery became the main suspect after someone reviewed photos of well-dressed/neat appearing African American males. That was it.”

The Legislature this past session approved a claims bill for Cure, awarding him with over $800,000, just a few months before he was killed.

This is a developing story, so check back for updates.