Pierce County fends off negligence lawsuit brought by slain South Hill woman’s family

An appeals court has ruled in Pierce County’s favor in the case of a slain South Hill woman whose family alleged Sheriff Department negligence led to her death.

Teresa Ryan was fatally shot outside her home Jan. 18, 2016 by her daughter’s ex-boyfriend. Austin Moores Nelson, 22, was sentenced to more than 42 years in prison for her death.

Ryan’s family sued Pierce County, arguing that he would have been arrested before he could shoot Ryan if the Sheriff’s Department had done more to investigate prior crimes.

The lawsuit said Moores Nelson broke into the Ryan home and took guns and other belongings in the weeks before the shooting and that he vandalized the daughter’s car, among other offenses.

Pierce County Superior Court Judge G. Helen Whitener initially denied the County’s motion for summary judgment in the case.

The county appealed, and a three-judge panel of Division II of the Washington State Court of Appeals reversed the decision Tuesday.

If the Ryans don’t challenge the appellate ruling, that would lead to the lawsuit’s dismissal.

“Because the police did not provide any express assurances to the Ryans or (the daughter) about Nelson prior to his murdering Teresa, the special relationship exception to the public duty doctrine does not apply,” Judge Rich Melnick wrote for the unanimous panel. “The County did not owe the Ryans any duty beyond that it owed to the public generally.”

A deputy at one point told the family he wanted “to go get” Moores Nelson, court records say.

However, “The Ryans actions after this statement do not suggest that they relied on the deputies going to arrest Nelson after the deputy made that statement,” Melnick wrote.

Judges Lisa Worswick and Lisa Sutton signed the opinion.

This story was originally published March 28, 2019 at 4:43 PM.