A federal lawsuit stemming from the fatal police killing of Brandon Lynch during a mental health crisis in 2022 in Olathe has been settled.
On Wednesday, Judge Julie Robinson of the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kansas, approved the wrongful death settlement between Lynch’s mother, Maria Varnas, and the city of Olathe and former Olathe Police Officer Conner Thompson.
The terms of the settlement are confidential, but it means the lawsuit will not proceed to trial and that officially, the city and Thompson “continue to deny liability,” according to court documents.
Lynch, 27, had a history of schizophrenia that was known to Olathe Police. On Dec. 31, 2022, he was shot and killed by Thompson, who responded to a 911 call at Lynch’s residence.
Andrew Holder, an attorney representing the city and Thompson, declined to comment. In an email to the Post, a city spokesperson said the city “is unable to provide any additional information.”
At the time of publication, Nikki Cannezzaro, a Kansas City, Missouri-based attorney for Varnas, had not returned the Post’s request for comment.
What happened?
Lynch’s sister called 911 on New Year’s Eve 2022 to get help for Lynch, in what court documents describe as a “welfare check.” When police arrived on the scene, police asked her to leave the residence and she complied.
Lynch was reportedly armed with a knife. Thompson and one other responding officer tried unsuccessfully to use a taser to subdue Lynch and ordered him multiple times to drop his weapon. Both officers who were responding had previous interactions with Lynch and knew of his mental health history.
Olathe Police reported that no mental health experts or co-responders were on the scene.
In an exchange that lasted just a few minutes, Thompson ultimately shot Lynch three times, killing him. A few months later, Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe found that Thompson’s use of force was “justified” and did not file criminal charges.
Thompson went on to receive two valor awards from area police organizations that cited his actions on Dec. 31, 2022.
He later resigned from the Olathe Police Department in the summer of 2024 after about five years on the job. Thompson later took a job with a police department in a Seattle suburb.
Lynch’s mother filed a federal lawsuit in 2024
Varnas filed a federal lawsuit against Thompson and the city of Olathe in spring 2024.
According to a news release issued by her attorneys at the time, she decided to sue “after exhausting all other avenues for seeking information and accountability.”
The lawsuit alleges that Thompson’s actions that night “escalated” the situation with Lynch in contradiction with the Olathe department’s crisis intervention training and “created” a scenario where deadly force was used.
It also accused the Olathe Police Department of having a custom of “excessive force.”
Olathe unsuccessfully tried to have the lawsuit dismissed
Last year, the city attempted to dismiss the lawsuit, but Judge Robinson allowed the bulk of the civil suit to proceed and rendered Thompson ineligible for qualified immunity — a legal doctrine that permits some government officials like police officers to avoid personal liability.
In her ruling denying the city’s motion to dismiss, she indicated that the court could find in favor of Varnas on multiple further points.
Robinson wrote that, per the available evidence, Lynch had not made “hostile motions toward the officers” before he was shot and killed, that there was a significant distance between him and the officers, and that he had not made a verbal threat to the officers.
She did find that Lynch had resisted arrest, but that it was “plausible … that Officer Thompson recklessly or deliberately brought about the need to use deadly force” through his actions at the scene.
Robinson also accepted Varnas’ claim that Thompson had potentially ignored crisis intervention training, a program intended to teach police how to safely de-escalate situations involving a person in crisis.
In total, the judge wrote that the evidence could “sufficiently demonstrate that Officer Thompson used excessive force in violation of Lynch’s Fourth Amendment rights.”
Looking back: Ex-Olathe police officer was given 2 “valor” awards for fatal shooting now at heart of federal lawsuit
