Dispatcher sent KY police to the wrong house where a man was shot. Now, he’s suing.

An Elliott County man filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against local first responders and law enforcement after a 911 dispatcher mistakenly sent police to the man’s address, resulting in a shootout with police that left him permanently marred, according to his lawsuit.

Mark Eldridge, 61, was shot twice at his home by Kentucky State Police troopers after they were wrongly sent to his residence by 911 dispatcher Johnny Boggs, according to the lawsuit. Boggs had intended to send troopers to a different home where a dispute with a gun had occurred. The original incident happened in January 2023.

When police showed up at Eldridge’s home by mistake, he grabbed a gun because he thought people were breaking into his home, according to his lawsuit. Police then shot him.

Boggs, the Elliott County Fiscal Court, deputy sheriff Casey Brammell, and KSP troopers Johnson McGraw, Jacob Williams and Ethan Crouch are defendants in Eldridge’s lawsuit.

Eldrige alleges his Fourth, Fifth, Eighth and Fourteenth Constitutional Rights were violated, saying he suffered unlawful imprisonment, negligence and violations of state law.

Capt. Paul Blanton, commander of public affairs for KSP, was not immediately available for comment Thursday afternoon. Elliott County Attorney John Lewis was not immediately available for comment either.

Lawsuit: Police were supposed to respond to domestic dispute

The incident began when Boggs took a 911 call from a resident who told him two children had come to her door asking for help; that their mother was being attacked by her boyfriend with a gun, according to the lawsuit.

The caller gave their address, which was in the 100 block of B. Ison Road, but told Boggs the home the children lived in was two-to-three houses away, according to the lawsuit.

Boggs dispatched troopers to Eldridge’s home instead, which is in the 200 block of B. Ison Road about 10 miles away, according to the lawsuit.

When troopers arrived at Eldridge’s home on the night of Jan. 1, they did not have lights and sirens on, and they parked 150 feet away from the front entrance of his home, according to the lawsuit.

Officers McGraw, Williams, Crouch and Brammell called in the registration plates of vehicles at Eldridge’s home, but the name tied to the vehicles didn’t match the names given to the dispatcher who took the original call about the dispute. The lawsuit alleges no attempts were made to get the original 911 caller to confirm whether they were at the right address.

Home alone and eating a bowl of chili, Eldridge was not expecting visitors and was not aware law enforcement had arrived, according to the lawsuit.

Eldridge heard loud noises on his porch and heavy banging at his door, which made him think someone was trying to break into his home, according to the lawsuit. He grabbed a handgun and peaked out of his curtain, where he was blinded by bright lights.

Officers did not announce themselves as law enforcement, according to the lawsuit, and the lights shining at Eldridge obscured him from seeing their uniforms.

“By parking in a location where their police cruisers could not be seen, by not activating their emergency lights, by not using their sirens on the approach, by making a stealthy approach to the home and by not shouting to Mr. Eldridge and identifying themselves as law enforcement, the defendants created a situation in which Mr. Eldridge, a man with no criminal history and no history of violence, faced what appeared to him as a home invasion by multiple assailants,” Eldridge’s attorney wrote in his lawsuit.

Eldridge thought he was under attack and opened the door. He was shot twice with “high-velocity, semi automatic weapons,” according to the lawsuit. He shot back at the officers, still unaware they were law enforcement. None of the officers were injured.

After Boggs was told someone had been shot, he received a call from another individual that neighbors had come to his home and reported a domestic dispute at the same location on B. Ison Road.

“Dispatcher Boggs then realized he had negligently and carelessly given the wrong address to law enforcement,” Eldridge’s attorney, Ned Pillersdorf wrote in his lawsuit.

Boggs allegedly went to the sheriff and said, “we have got a mess and it is my fault.”

Eldridge was transported to the Morgan County hospital and was at “high risk for loss of life or limbs from uncontrolled bleeding and traumatic wounds,” according to the lawsuit. He had been shot once in his right and left forearms.

He was later transported to University of Kentucky Hospital, where he remained for 18 days, according to court documents. Eldridge underwent five surgeries.

As a result of the officers’ shots to his arms, Eldridge never regained full use of his right arm and hand. His left arm is partially numb from the elbow to the hand and he has no full function in his left wrist, according to the lawsuit. He also does not have control on his left hand fingers, and describes it as “the claw.”

Suit: KSP pursued charges against man shot

While he was being treated at UK, Eldridge was under 24-hour supervision by KSP troopers. At that time, he was not facing criminal charges, according to the suit.

But Eldridge was eventually charged with four counts of first-degree wanton endangerment — all felonies.

Elliot County District Court Judge Rupert Wilhoit dismissed Eldridge’s case, citing a lack of probable cause. Later, when KSP still pursued charges through a grand jury, they declined to indict Eldridge.

Eldridge is seeking punitive damages against the defendants in the amount of $500,000 each, compensatory damages for medical bills, compensation for past and future pain and suffering, attorney’s fees and a trial by jury.

When asked for comment, Eldridge’s attorney said the lawsuit speaks for itself, but that the contents read like a John Grisham novel.

“The only difference is that all that is alleged happened — not fictional,” Pillersdorf said in an email to the Herald-Leader.

Shootings committed by Kentucky State Police are common. In a 2021 study conducted by the Marshall Project and the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, it was found that Kentucky State Police have committed more fatal shootings than any other law enforcement agency in the state, including Lexington and Louisville.

Additional findings showed KSP killed more people in rural communities than any other department in the country. KSP investigates itself and other law enforcement agencies when shootings happen. A Herald-Leader review of state police investigations into those shootings revealed that at the end of 2022, no officer had ever been prosecuted as a result of a KSP investigation into a police shooting.