Wilson v. Rosales

Ohio Court of Appeals·Decided September 18, 2026·No. 2025-CA-54; 2025-CA-55·Published

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT CLARK COUNTY

JOYCE WILSON AND TALIEK : DENNIS, : C.A. Nos. 2025-CA-54; 2025-CA-55 CO-ADMINISTRATORS OF THE : ESTATE OF ERIC EUGENE COLE : Trial Court Case Nos. 22CV0571;

: 23CV0391

Appellees :

: (Civil Appeal from Common Pleas v. : Court)

:

AMANDA ROSALES, ET AL. : FINAL JUDGMENT ENTRY & OPINION

Appellant ...........

Pursuant to the opinion of this court rendered on September 18, 2026, the judgment of the trial court is affirmed in part and reversed in part, and the matter is remanded for further proceedings consistent with the opinion.

Costs to be paid as follows: 50% by the appellees and 50% to be split by the appellants.

Pursuant to Ohio App.R. 30(A), the clerk of the court of appeals shall immediately send a copy of the court’s ruling to each party and note that action on the docket. Additionally, pursuant to App.R. 27, the clerk of the court of appeals shall send a certified copy of this judgment, which constitutes a mandate, to the clerk of the trial court and note the service on the appellate docket.

For the court,

MARY K. HUFFMAN, JUDGE

TUCKER, J., and HANSEMAN, J., concur.

OPINION

CLARK C.A. Nos. 2025-CA-54; 2025-CA-55

ANDREW N. YOSOWITZ and SARA A. LODGE, Attorneys for Appellants Mary Herge and Erin Reynolds BRIAN M. ZETS, Attorney for Appellant Amanda Rosales C. BENJAMIN COOPER, REX H. ELLIOTT, MICHAEL L. WRIGHT, and ROBERT L. GRESHAM, Attorneys for Appellees

HUFFMAN, J.

{¶ 1} In December 2022, the Estate of Eric Eugene Cole (“Estate”) filed an action asserting several claims against Clark County Sheriff’s Office Dispatchers Erin Reynolds and Mary Herge and Springfield Police Officer Amanda Rosales in their individual capacities as employees of the Clark County Sheriff’s Office and the Springfield Police Department, respectively. The Estate also filed a companion case against Clark County Sheriff’s Office Dispatcher Stacie Raynor in June 2023. In the interest of judicial economy, the trial court consolidated the two cases.

{¶ 2} Reynolds, Herge, and Rosales now appeal from the trial court’s decision denying their motions for summary judgment based on political subdivision immunity under R.C. 2744, arguing that there was no exception to their immunity when their actions were not conducted in a reckless or wanton manner. Those appeals have been consolidated into the instant matter.

{¶ 3} Upon our review, we conclude that the trial court did not err in denying summary judgment to Reynolds. Genuine issues of material fact remain as to whether Reynolds’s conduct was reckless—defeating statutory immunity—given her claim that she did not hear Eric Cole, the Estate’s decedent, say that he was lying in the middle of the street during his 911 call and did not provide the dispatched officers with that important information regarding his location. However, we find that the trial court erred in denying summary judgment to

Herge and Rosales because no reasonable trier of fact could find that they acted in a reckless or wanton manner.

{¶ 4} For the reasons outlined below, we affirm in part and reverse in part the judgment of the trial court.

I. Background Facts and Procedural History

{¶ 5} On June 13, 2021, Dispatchers Herge, Reynolds, and Raynor, as well as Morgan Miller, were working the nightshift at the Clark County Dispatch Center. The Dispatch Center was busy with Reynolds at the main police radio position; Raynor at the backup police radio and LEADS position; Miller at the fire and EMS dispatch position; and Herge at the phone and 911 call position.

{¶ 6} During an approximately 30-minute period, the dispatch center received several apparently connected calls, creating chaos in the dispatch center. At 10:50 p.m., Herge received a 911 call reporting two shots fired near the Sunoco gas station at 1024 E. John Street. Ten minutes later, a 911 call came in from a female at 221 W. Johnny Lytle Avenue. Raynor took the call because Herge and Miller were already busy on the phones. The female caller reported to Raynor that her ex-boyfriend, whom she called “TR Cole,” was waving a gun and threatening her. Raynor was unable to learn more information before she transferred the call to the officer in charge.

{¶ 7} Within two minutes of the call to Raynor, Herge received a 911 call reporting people shooting at 414 W. High Street. The caller stated that “Jolani Sills” was angry because the caller did not want to be in a relationship with him. The caller confirmed that a gun had been fired, and Herge tried to get information about the suspect’s car and weapons.

{¶ 8} At 11:04 p.m., while Herge was still handling the call regarding possible shots fired at 414 W. High Street, the dispatchers received another call regarding the initial

complaint at 221 W. Johnny Lytle Avenue. The call went to another dispatch center because the dispatchers were so busy, and Miller answered the call. The caller, Destiny Sudberry, reported that someone was threatening her family. Miller had difficulty getting information from Sudberry but deduced that Eric Cole was threatening to shoot her house.

{¶ 9} At 11:10 p.m., Herge received a 911 call reporting that at least eight shots had been fired at 401 W. Liberty Street. Herge tried to get the name of the shooter but was only told that the suspect’s name was “Pee.” At 11:11 p.m., an unknown caller from Opportunity Gardens reported hearing 20 shots fired. At 11:12 p.m., a female called 911 and was unintelligibly screaming. At the same time, a third caller reported being terrified after hearing multiple shots down the street from her house at 404 W. Euclid Avenue. That caller called back about one minute later saying that she heard more yelling.

{¶ 10} At 11:16 p.m., Eric Cole called 911 and reported to Reynolds that he had been shot in the arm. Reynolds mistakenly thought that Cole identified his location as 414 S. Center Boulevard, but he stated his location as 1407 S. Center Boulevard. He then stated that he was “about to die” and informed her twice that he was “in the middle of the street.” Reynolds’s conversation with Cole ended after approximately 32 seconds, when Herge took over Cole’s call.

{¶ 11} Once Herge was on the call with Cole, he told her that he was “dying” and was outside in the middle of the street at 1407 S. Center Boulevard. Herge typed “HE IS OUTSIDE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET” into the computer-aided dispatch system (“CAD”). She did not radio the information regarding Cole’s location to the officers because she was still on the line with Cole and believed that the information on Cole’s location was automatically transmitted to the responding police units by way of the CAD.

{¶ 12} While Herge remained on the line with Cole, she heard the police sirens through the phone. Suddenly, Cole told Herge, “They just hit me.” Herge asked, “Who hit you?” Cole replied, “Police.” Herge exclaimed, “The police hit you?” Cole replied, “Yeah.”

{¶ 13} Herge then heard the police on the scene talking to Cole, and the call ended.

Approximately 45 seconds passed between the time that Cole told Herge that he was in the middle of the street and the time that he told her the police had hit him. Herge was on the phone with Cole for approximately 2½ minutes.

{¶ 14} Officer Rosales was dispatched to the scene where Cole had been shot, but there was confusion regarding the house number where Cole was located. The dash cam video in Rosales’s cruiser shows that Rosales proceeded to the scene with lights and sirens. At that time of night, there was no vehicle or pedestrian traffic. The weather was clear and dry. Rosales was not driving erratically and was abiding by the speed limit.

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