The special administrator appointed to the Lukisha Thomas estate asked a judge to seal his petition to approve a settlement in the wrongful-death suit, according to court records.
Thomas died March 30, 2013, after being struck by a Jeep while walking on the sidewalk of York Street with her boyfriend and their young son. The driver of the Jeep, Aiken attorney Tom Woodruff, was charged with careless driving by the Aiken Department of Public Safety.
Barnwell attorney J. Martin Harvey on Monday filed the motion to seal his petition, which he said "pertains to the proposed settlement."
Maria Saxon, Thomas' sister, filed a wrongful-death suit against Woodruff in September 2013. She is seeking compensation for medical expenses; pain and suffering for the period after Thomas' death; fright, grief, mental distress and mental anguish; funeral expenses; and exemplary damages.
Aiken County Probate Judge Sue Roe in February appointed Harvey to serve as the special administrator of the estate to review the facts of the case and a proposed settlement and determine whether acceptance of the settlement is in the best interest of the beneficiaries.
Harvey listed the reasons he wanted the petition sealed in a motion sent to the court, and the court is in the process of scheduling a hearing regarding his motion.
"Among the evidence the Court may hear in consideration of the Petition for Approval of Settlement are facts derived from the Department of Social Services' file on the decedent, which are confidential as a matter of law, testimony of a toxicologist and personal financial data of the Defendant," he wrote in the motion.
"The parties will not be harmed by the sealing of the file temporarily, and in fact the minor beneficiaries may be protected by holding this matter as confidential until the Court has heard the Petition," the motion states. "The public interest is best served by sealing the Petition for Settlement in that facts and data contained in the Petition could be easily taken out of context, and result in inflamed public sensitivities. The sealed documents would be withheld from the public for a relatively short period of time."
Roe's appointment of Harvey came a week after a mediating attorney declared the case "at an impasse" after six hours of mediation. Mediation is a form of alternative dispute resolution in which a neutral person attempts to help the parties find a solution to their dispute out of the courtroom.
Teddy Kulmala covers the crime and courts beat for the Aiken Standard and has been with the newspaper since August 2012. He is a native of Williston and majored in communication studies at Clemson University.
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