Court Filing Reveals $500K Awarded in Kersh Case Payment Split Among 3 in Case Over Accident That Killed MSU Track Athlete
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ESTABLISHED 1879 | COLUMBUS, MISSISSIPPI CDISPATCH.COM 75 ¢ NEWSSTAND | 40 ¢ HOME DELIVERY MONDAY | FEBRUARY 4, 2019 MONDAY PROFILE Court filing reveals $500K awarded in Kersh case Payment split among 3 in case over accident that killed MSU track athlete BY ALEX HOLLOWAY [email protected] An Oktibbeha County Circuit Court filing has shed light on how much each party in a civil case against the Mississippi Department of Pub- lic Safety received in court-ordered payments. Lee In June, Mississip- pi 16th Circuit Judge Lee Coleman ordered MDPS to pay $500,000 in the case of Tanequa Alexander v. Mis- sissippi Department of Public Safety. The case spawned from a May 2017 wreck on Highway 182 that injured Zack Plair/Dispatch Staff Alexander and Noel Collier and killed Gerald “Boo” Matthews Jr. leaps in an attempt to make it across the “Big Baller” bouncy house at a youth group Super former Mississippi State University Bowl watch party Sunday in the Starkville First United Methodist Church gymnasium. Matthews is a plant scientist who student-athlete Kaelin Kersh. volunteers with various church functions and even holds a second job as a Starkville-MSU Area Rapid Transit driver. On Jan. 9, Coleman ordered the payments to be divided between Al- exander, Collier and the Kersh estate. According to the order, which was Gerald ‘Boo’ Matthews works, plays filed on Jan. 14, Alexander received $133,333, Collier received $83,333 and the Kersh estate received $283,334. to help his Starkville community The wreck happened on May 7, 2017, at the intersection of Mayhew BY ZACK PLAIR all on cell phone video for posterity. Road and Highway 182. The car which [email protected] “That was harder than I thought ‘I want to have people Collier was driving and Alexander and it would be,” Matthews said as he Kersh were passengers in was hit by he “Big Baller” bouncy house to talk to. That’s what collected himself. a Mississippi Highway Patrol cruiser was finally fully inflated and Matthews, the frequent parent I do best.’ ready to use for a youth group while attempting to turn from Mayhew T volunteer with youth group functions Gerald ‘Boo’ Matthews Road onto Highway 182. Super Bowl watch party in the (he has a teen son, Aiden), sums up Starkville First United Methodist came out with my face looking kind MHP Trooper Kyle Lee was driving his contributions with “I just come eastbound on Highway 182, reportedly Church gymnasium Sunday after- here and play.” He’s been a Sunday of mashed. People would come to the in response to a vehicle that had left noon. school teacher, traveled with mission hospital and look in the (nursery) the road, when he collided with the Gerald “Boo” Matthews Jr., who teams at least a half-dozen times, window and jump back. So he said car. He reportedly did not activate his is not a youth but rather describes sometimes out of the country, and since I had the ability to scare people himself as “not far from retirement,” now is a member of the church’s like that, I must have looked like flashing lights or siren. stood on the starting mark ready to handyman ministry that mostly helps some kind of ghost. Last year, state legislators passed, tackle the apparatus all the same. the elderly — all things that “keep “To my dad’s dying day, he said I and Gov. Phil Bryant signed into law, The object of the challenge was to me from sitting around the house,” never improved,” he added jokingly. the Kaelin Kersh Act, which requires successfully hop across four inflated he says. But if Matthews is “playing” at emergency responders to turn on spheres lined up across the wobbly Even the story of how he got his church, he’s definitely working the flashing lights when going more than bouncy house without falling. nickname “Boo” rings of similar rest of the time. 30 miles per hour faster than the speed Matthews jumped. He bounced self-deprecation. Since 1988, he’s been a biologi- limit. hard off the first sphere and fell to “I’ve had it since I was born,” Mat- cal scientist with the United States Lee was indicted for culpable negli- the bottom. A few teens who showed thews said. “My dad told me that my Department of Agriculture Office gence manslaughter last week. Accord- up early to help set up the party got it mom had a hard labor with me and I See BOO, 3A ing to his indictment, he was driving at speeds of up to 99 miles per hour. Aldermen to decide on annexation Tuesday Consultant: Proposed area will generate more revenue Consultant for the city than is needed in annexation costs Mike Slaugh- ter talks to BY ALEX HOLLOWAY nexation for more than a year. Starkville [email protected] The process, which started in aldermen at October 2017, began with three a Friday work On Tuesday, Starkville’s board study areas — a large area along session about of aldermen will decide whether the city’s entire east side and to the the city’s to press ahead with drafting an south; an area on the southwestern proposed an- annexation ordinance to add new nexation area. territory to the city’s east. side that would bring in the Sunset Aldermen are Consultant Mike Slaughter, of subdivision; and a small area to the considering the Oxford-based urban planning north that would bring all of Collier annexing firm Slaughter and Associates, pre- Road within the city. an area, In October 2018, the board vot- highlighted sented updated annexation study in pink, to results at a Friday work session for ed to narrow the scope to one area, the east of a modified area east of Starkville. split into two separate study areas. Starkville Starkville has been considering an- See ANNEXATION, 3A Alex Holloway/Dispatch Staff WEATHER FIVE QUESTIONS CALENDAR LOCAL FOLKS PUBLIC 1 What type of birds were responsible for the Thursday, Feb. 7 MEETINGS engine failure that led Chesley Sullenberger to ■ Exhibit opening: A free reception Feb. 5: Columbus land a plane in the Hudson in 2009? from 5:30-7 p.m. at the Columbus Arts City Council regular 2 What chef’s kitchen is on view at the Smith- meeting, 5 p.m., sonian? Council’s Rosenzweig Arts Center opens 3 The Kola Superdeep Borehole, the deepest an exhibit from Mississippi University for Municipal Complex hole ever drilled into Earth’s crust, is in what Women’s permanent collection of art- Courtroom Feb. 6: Columbus Frelercik Price country? works. Refreshments are served at this 4 What was written on Michael Portnoy’s bare Municipal School Second grade, Annunciation event open to everyone at 501 Main St. chest during his impromptu dance beside Bob For more information, contact the CAC, District Board Dylan at the 1998 Grammy Awards? 662-328-2787 (closed Mondays). review meeting, High 67 Low 59 5 What secondary — now obsolete — profes- 11:30 a.m. sion of barbers led to the striped barbershop Feb. 7: CPD Over- Cloudy mild pole? Full forecast on Friday, Feb. 8 view Committee Answers, 6B ■ page 2A. Jembe Den: Bob Damm of Mississippi meeting, 11 a.m., State University’s Department of Music Municipal Complex presents this percussion student ensem- Feb. 11: Columbus INSIDE ble sharing dance rhythms of Africa at Municipal School Classifieds5B Education 6A the Columbus Arts Council’s Rosenzweig District Board regu- Comics 4B Obituaries 5A Arts Center, 501 Main St. More details Shelby Griffin, of Starkville, lar meeting, 6 p.m., Crossword 6B Opinions 4A coming soon. For more information, is a senior education major at Brandon Central 139TH YEAR, NO. 278 Dear Abby 4B contact the CAC, 662-328-2787. MSU. Services DISPATCH CUSTOMER SERVICE 328-2424 | NEWSROOM 328-2471 2A MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2019 THE DISPATCH • www.cdispatch.com DID YOU HEAR? Bud Light touches nerve MillerCoors also hit back at Bud Light with with corn syrup Super a tweet clarifying that Bowl ads none of its products use NEW YORK — Bud high-fructose corn syr- Monday Light attacked rival up. It claimed that many brands in its Super Bowl Anheuser-Busch prod- ads, but it was the corn ucts do. FROSTBITE 5K industry that felt stung. The spots trolled rival Germany: Sausage brands that use corn syr- museum reconsiders up. One showed a medie- val caravan schlepping a move to Nazi camp site BERLIN — A German huge barrel of corn syr- sausage museum ap- up to castles owned by parently won’t move to Miller and Coors. the site of a former Nazi The National Corn camp for slave laborers Growers Association after news of the plan rebuked the brand for triggered strong criti- boasting that Bud Light cism. does not use the ingredi- The German ent. Bratwurst Museum was The association, which slated to move to an area says it represents 40,000 on the outskirts of the corn farmers nationwide, eastern town of Muehl- tweeted that America’s hausen that was once a corn farmers were “dis- satellite site for the larg- appointed” in Bud Light, er Buchenwald concen- and thanked Miller Lite tration camp. That drew and Coors Light for “sup- criticism from Jewish porting our industry.” leaders and others. Anheuser-Busch, the Uwe Keith, the head maker of Bud Light, re- of the association that op- sponded that it “fully sup- erates the museum, was ports corn growers and quoted late Friday as tell- will continue to invest in ing Bild newspaper that the corn industry.” “we definitely won’t build Austin Frayser/Special to The Dispatch “Bud Light’s Super there.” He told news Top photo: A large group of runners get underway with the Frostbite 5K in downtown Starkville Saturday.