Mark Lunsford, whose daughter Jessica was abducted, raped and killed by a neighbor in 2005, is planning to sue the Citrus County, Florida, sheriff for failing to search the neighbor's home, Lunsford's attorneys said. The proposed lawsuit, which has not yet been filed, claims that if law enforcement officers had searched the mobile home of John Couey, the registered sex offender convicted of Jessica's rape and murder, instead of just searching the home's yard the night the 9-year-old girl disappeared, she would have been discovered.Evidence revealed during Couey's trial showed that Jessica was kept alive for as many as four days before being buried alive. Couey was sentenced to death in August for the crimes.
The lawsuit will name Sheriff Jeff Dawsy and his department, the attorneys said.
Eric Block and Mark Gelman, Lunsford's attorneys, said in a news conference in Jacksonville, Florida, Tuesday that negligence by law enforcement directly or indirectly led to Jessica's death.
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