ROCKY MOUNT — Franklin County Circuit Judge William Alexander ordered during a court hearing Friday that two new trials be held tied to an emotional lawsuit involving the circumstances that led to the deaths of two volunteer firefighters in Rocky Mount more than three years ago.
Trial dates have not been set.
Alexander said Friday that he had erred during a three-day jury trial that ended Sept. 25 because he failed to allow specific testimony offered by an expert witness for the plaintiff, Christie Altice-Weaver, the daughter of one of the firefighters killed that day, and related portions from a training manual for operators of emergency vehicles.
Tony Russell and Kathleen Wright, attorneys for Altice-Weaver, had asserted in court filings that the jury should have been allowed to consider that evidence and had asked for a new trial to determine whether Posey Dillon, the firefighter driving the fire truck, was negligent the day the collision occurred. Dillon had been trained as an operator of an emergency vehicle.
http://www.roanoke.com/news/2433878-12/new-trials-ordered-in-fatal-crash-involving-rocky.html