The parents of former LSU wide receiver Kyren Lacy have filed a lawsuit against the Louisiana State Police, alleging officers falsely implicated Lacy in a December 2024 fatal crash on Louisiana Highway 20.
The suit, filed by Lacy’s parents on Friday (April 10) in the 19th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge, names LSP, Trooper Tyler Werner and Sgt. Leeman Howard. It alleges LSP’s investigation into the crash was “marred by numerous falsifications, fabrications, and misconduct designed to wrongfully attribute blame to Mr. Lacy.”
Surveillance video from the crash shows Lacy, 24, driving south in a green Dodge Charger and illegally passing four cars on a 2-lane road. A pickup truck traveling northbound swerved to avoid what LSP alleges was Lacy’s Charger, coming at it the wrong way at high speed, causing a chain reaction crash that led to the death of a 78-year-old veteran. Lacy drove away from the accident.
State police charged Lacy with negligent homicide, reckless operation of a vehicle and felony hit-and-run.
Lacy turned himself in about a month after the crash, then posted bail. After he was released, the NFL rescinded his draft invitation. While that didn’t mean he wouldn’t make it in the NFL, it did seriously hurt his draft stock — falling from a potential top-50 pick to potentially going undrafted.
On April 12, 2025 — two days before his case was supposed to go to a jury trial and two weeks before the draft — Lacy died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after a police chase in Houston.
Lacy’s case lay dormant for months until Lacy’s attorney, Mathew Ory, released evidence that seemed to exonerate Lacy in October.
“At the time of impact, he’s 72.6 yards behind the vehicles. Keyword — behind the vehicles,” said Ory in an appearance on HTV Houma in October. “That is not how this story was ever painted. Never.”
Ory alleged Lacy couldn’t have caused the crash because he was back in the southbound lane at the time of impact.
Ory’s claim caused state police to release a video defending their charges against Lacy two weeks later. Officials said they never said Lacy directly caused the crash; rather, Lacy didn’t return to his lane until it was too late, and that was what caused the crash.
“All evidence collected supports the conclusion that Lacy's reckless operation of the green Charger in oncoming traffic triggered the chain of events involving the other drivers, ultimately resulting in the fatal crash,” state police explained in the video about their reasons for charging Lacy.
An independent investigation by the Lafourche Parish District Attorney’s Office, however, found LSP’s crash report contained “several inconsistencies,” and that the evidence did not support a negligent homicide charge, as Lacy did not actively cause the crash.
Lacy’s family’s suit alleges that, besides falsely accusing Lacy, state police coerced and even coached victims into falsely identifying his green Charger as the vehicle that caused the crash.
The family also alleges the investigation caused his death in April.
“But for the Defendant’s fabricated investigation, false arrest and malicious prosecution, Mr. Lacy would still be alive today,” the lawsuit said.
Lacy’s family is asking for a jury trial.
In a statement to WWNO, LSP said all the information they used to investigate and charge Lacy is available for public viewing, and referred back to the October video.
