$126 Million Verdict for a Teen Hit by an Off-Duty Police Sergeant, $90.1 Million Judgment Stands
After trial: Reduced by statute. The $126,000,000 verdict of April 1, 2026 was entered April 6, 2026 as $90,000,000 against Kyle Lloyd on the Section 1983 claim and $125,000 against the City of Moore, capped by the Oklahoma tort claims act.
Won by Laird Hammons Laird (lead counsel) and Hicks Law Firm.
On December 14, 2019 Emily Gaines, an 18-year-old Moore High School senior, was driving to take the ACT when Sgt. Kyle Lloyd of the Moore Police Department, off duty and rushing a key to another officer's patrol car for a department event, hit her broadside at 95 to 100 mph in a 50 zone. She died at the scene. On April 1, 2026 a federal jury returned $126,000,000. The court entered $90,000,000 against Lloyd, who is in prison, and cut the $36,000,000 against the City to $125,000 under Oklahoma's Governmental Tort Claims Act.
What happened
On the morning of Saturday, December 14, 2019 Emily Alexis Gaines was driving on South Sooner Road in Moore, Oklahoma, on her way to take the ACT. She was 18 and a senior at Moore High School.
Sgt. Kyle Lloyd of the Moore Police Department was off duty and in his personal car. He was running a key over to another officer's patrol car for the department's annual Shop with a Cop event. He reached roughly 95 to 100 mph in a 50 mph zone and struck her car broadside at an intersection. She died where the cars came to rest.
Lloyd pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in Cleveland County in June 2021 and was sentenced to 18 years, nine of them to serve in prison.
Her estate and her parents sued in 2020 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, No. 5:20-cv-00851, before Chief Judge Timothy D. DeGiusti. The federal claim was under 42 U.S.C. 1983, that Lloyd had violated her Fourteenth Amendment rights. The state-law claim was that the City of Moore was answerable for him because, key in hand for a department event, he was acting within the scope of his employment.
The jury agreed with both on April 1, 2026. It awarded $90,000,000 to her estate for her suffering, mental anguish and loss of life, and $36,000,000 to her parents for grief and loss of companionship, a total of $126,000,000. It is reported as the largest non-class-action plaintiff's verdict in Oklahoma history.
Then the statute did what the statute does. The $36,000,000 was a state-law award against a city, and Oklahoma's Governmental Tort Claims Act caps those. For a 2019 incident the cap was $125,000 per claimant for a non-property claim. On April 6, 2026 the court entered judgment for $125,000 against the City of Moore and the full $90,000,000 against Kyle Lloyd personally, since the Act does not reach a federal civil rights claim against the individual officer.
The City posted the judgment on its own website with a statement: it respected the jury's verdict holding Lloyd liable for his negligence, disagreed that he had been acting within the scope of his employment, and would consider an appeal.
Chris Hammons of Laird Hammons Laird was lead trial counsel, with Jason Hicks of the Hicks Law Firm, both of Oklahoma City. The two firms share an office on SW 89th Street.
Emily's parents have since pushed for changes to how Moore polices its own officers. The $90,000,000 is a judgment against a man serving a prison sentence, with no insurer identified. The $125,000 is what the law allows a family to recover from the city whose officer killed their daughter.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.City of Moore, official posting of the judgment·Archived copy
- 2.News 9·Archived copy
- 3.CourtListener RECAP docket, Gaines v. Moore, City of, W.D. Okla. No. 5:20-cv-00851
- 4.Addison Law (an Oklahoma firm that was not counsel in the case): the $90 million Section 1983 and $36 million state-law components·Archived copy
More proven verdicts from Laird Hammons Laird
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