Man shot, injured by police sent to wrong address receives $270K settlement
An Elliott County man received a $270,000 settlement after he sued Kentucky State Police and county officials, when troopers were wrongly sent to his house and shot him.
Mark Eldridge was shot twice at his home by KSP troopers after they were sent to his residence by 911 dispatcher Johnny Boggs, according to a lawsuit filed in December 2023.
Boggs had intended to send troopers to a different home where a dispute with a gun had occurred in January 2023.
When police showed up at Eldridge’s home by mistake, he grabbed a gun because he thought people were breaking into his home, according to his lawsuit. Police then shot him.
Eldridge was shot twice with “high-velocity, semi-automatic weapons,” according to the lawsuit. He shot back at the officers, still unaware they were law enforcement. None of the officers were injured.
Eldridge sued Boggs, the Elliott County Fiscal Court, deputy sheriff Casey Brammell and KSP troopers Johnson McGraw, Jacob Williams and Ethan Crouch.
As a result of the settlement, Elliott County paid Eldridge $250,000, and state police paid $20,000.
Ned Pillersdorf, Eldridge’s attorney, said the settlement was fair for all involved. Scott Miller, who represented the troopers, agreed.
“We felt we had viable defenses to our case given the difficult circumstances everyone faced that evening, but I feel like this is a good resolution for everyone, and we are glad we can put this behind us,” Miller said.
What led up to the shooting
On Jan. 1, 2023, Boggs took a 911 call from a resident who told him two children had come to her door asking for help and their mother was being attacked by her boyfriend with a gun, according to the lawsuit.
The caller gave their address, which was in the 100 block of B. Ison Road, but told Boggs the children lived two or three houses away.
Boggs dispatched troopers to Eldridge’s home instead, which is in the 200 block of B. Ison Road about 10 miles away, according to the lawsuit.
When troopers arrived at Eldridge’s home, they did not have lights and sirens on, and they parked 150 feet away from the front entrance of his home, according to the original complaint.
Officers McGraw, Williams, Crouch and Brammell called in the registration plates of vehicles at Eldridge’s home, but the name tied to the vehicles didn’t match the names given to the dispatcher who took the original call.
The lawsuit says no attempts were made to get the original 911 caller to confirm whether they were at the right address.
Home alone and eating a bowl of chili, Eldridge was not expecting visitors and was not aware law enforcement had arrived, according to the lawsuit.
Eldridge heard loud noises on his porch and heavy banging at his door, which made him think someone was trying to break in, according to the lawsuit. He grabbed a handgun and peaked out of his curtain, where he was blinded by bright lights.
Officers did not announce themselves as law enforcement, according to the lawsuit, and the lights shining at Eldridge obscured him from seeing their uniforms.
Eldridge thought he was under attack and opened the door, and was then shot twice, according to the lawsuit. He then returned fire, but no officers were injured.
After Boggs was told someone had been shot, he received a call from another individual that neighbors had come to his home and reported a domestic dispute at the same location on B. Ison Road as the original caller.
“Dispatcher Boggs then realized he had negligently and carelessly given the wrong address to law enforcement,” Pillersdorf wrote in his lawsuit.
Boggs allegedly went to the sheriff and said, “we have got a mess, and it is my fault.”
Eldridge was transported to the Morgan County hospital and was at “high risk for loss of life or limbs from uncontrolled bleeding and traumatic wounds,” according to the lawsuit. He had been shot once in his right and left forearms.
He was later transported to University of Kentucky Hospital, where he remained for 18 days and underwent five surgeries, according to court documents.
As a result of the officer’s shots, his left arm is partially numb from the elbow to the hand, and he has no full function in his left wrist, according to the lawsuit. He also does not have control on his left-hand fingers, and describes it as “the claw.”
This story was originally published October 16, 2025 at 10:31 AM.
