Opinion ID: 168353
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Lawrence Sims's Death

Text: 4 On September 3, 2001, Lawrence and Clara Sims attended a golf tournament at their local country club. Sims became extremely intoxicated during the course of the day. He was still quite intoxicated when the couple returned home that evening to an unkempt kitchen. Over this seemingly minor issue, Sims expressed unexpected agitation and anger in front of his wife and daughter. He stormed out of the kitchen, jumped in his car, and sped away. 5 Concerned for her husband's well-being, Mrs. Sims immediately called 911. She told the 911 operator that Sims was upset and that we were afraid that he was going to get hurt or hurt himself. R. at 807. By the next morning when her husband had still failed to return home, Mrs. Sims phoned family, friends, and local hospitals to no avail. She then filed a missing persons report. In her sworn statement to the police, she described Sims's state of mind on the evening of September 3: 6 Drinking—but in a good mood. Got home around 9:00, got angry because the house was a mess ... Got angrier [and] angrier—slammed dining room chair to floor [and] stormed out—saying he's out of here. Mentioning driving off a cliff. Called 911 to let you know. 7 R. at 85. The official missing persons report, drafted by the police and signed by Mrs. Sims without her review, editorialized on this language, noting instead that Mr. Sims was enraged over the cleanliness of their home ... [and] may be suicidal, because when he left his residence, Mr. Sims mentioned something about driving off a cliff. R. at 84 (emphasis added). 8 Two days later police recovered Sims's body. Based on evidence at the accident scene, police surmised that his car had careened off the main road onto a right-of-way toward a creek. The car, traveling at an excessively high rate of speed, clipped a fence and then hit a bump that caused it to sail some 115 feet over a creek bed, before landing in a pasture. No skid marks were visible at the scene nor any other evidence suggesting that Sims swerved before clipping the fence. Although Sims habitually wore his seat belt, on this occasion his seat belt was not fastened. Post-mortem examination revealed a blood-alcohol content (BAC) of 0.19%, well over the legal limit. 9 Despite Mrs. Sims's sworn police statement to the contrary, she has steadfastly held in these proceedings that she intentionally lied about her husband's intent to drive off a cliff. This lie, she claims, was merely an effort to encourage the police to act quickly to locate her missing husband. Mrs. Sims adamantly asserts that she never believed her husband was truly suicidal. 10