Crash victims' families file suit against alleged drag racers
Published 09/24/2006 By SUE GUINN LEGG

JOHNSON CITY - The families of Cortney Hensley and Courtney Beard have filed separate $50 million lawsuits against the men charged with murder and attempted murder in last year's fatal accident on North Roan Street.

Hensley, 17, of Telford, was killed in the accident one day after being crowned homecoming queen at David Crockett High School. Beard, her 17-year-old best friend, of Erwin, was severely burned.

The girls' parents filed the lawsuits Thursday in Johnson City Law Court, three days short of the anniversary of the Sept. 24 accident.

In addition to the suits against Bradley Mullins, 19, and David Phillips, 39 - the two Johnson City men accused of causing the crash by drag racing - damages are being sought from Honda, maker of the sport utility vehicle the girls were riding in, and Oral Bragg, owner of the modified 1996 Mustang GT Mullins was driving when he crashed into the rear of the girls' vehicle.

According to the lawsuits, Beard was driving the CRV north with Hensley in the front passenger seat and had stopped at a red light when Mullins, who was driving "at an extremely high rate of speed and drag racing with Phillips, violently collided" with her vehicle.

Immediately after the collision, the lawsuits state, the Honda "burst into flames that quickly engulfed the entire vehicle, including the driver and front passenger compartments," killing Hensley and causing "catastrophic, life-altering burns and other severe injuries" to Beard.

According to the suits, Phillips, who was driving a late-model Dodge Viper, a rare 10-cylinder sports car, "recklessly and with extreme disregard for human life" aided and abetted and otherwise encouraged Mullins to drive recklessly and at an excessive rate of speed, "contributing to and proximately causing the collision."

The suits allege both men committed multiple traffic offenses including drag racing and driving with "reckless, willful and wanton disregard for the safety of others."

The suits also allege that Honda and several of its subsidiaries negligently designed, manufactured and distributed the CRV and that Bragg negligently entrusted the Mustang to Mullins.

Mullins was arrested on the murder and attempted-murder charges upon his release from a hospital Oct. 5.

Phillips was originally charged on Oct. 14 with felony reckless endangerment for his role in the crash. His charge was increased to second-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder in an indictment returned by a Washington County grand jury in January.

The men are scheduled for a consolidated trial of the charges Nov. 13 in Washington County Criminal Court.