Todd St. John, 21, was not the first person killed by Knox Co. Deputy Mikey Ashurst, complaint alleges
LONDON, Ky. — One young man is dead, and another is lucky to be alive, after Knox County Deputy Sheriff John Michael “Mikey” Ashurst rammed their utility-task vehicle (UTV) and drove it off the road on July 24, 2025.
Today, attorneys for Jerry Stewart, just 20 years old at the time of the crash, and the Estate of Todd St. John, 21, filed federal lawsuits against Deputy Ashurst, Knox County Sheriff Mike Smith, and Knox County, Kentucky. The lawsuits allege that Ashurst intentionally and recklessly turned his vehicle into a deadly weapon, without legal justification, murdering Mr. St. John and assaulting Mr. Stewart in the process.
Mackenzie Eads, the fiancée of Todd St. John and the mother of his two young children, is the Personal Representative for his estate and plaintiff in one of the lawsuits.
“I believe it could have, 110 percent, been prevented,” Ms. Eads told WLEX News after her fiancé’s death. “I will fight tooth and nail to get him the justice that he deserves.”
On the evening of July 24, Mr. St. John was driving his UTV, with Mr. Stewart in the passenger seat, on a back road in Corbin, heading for a field where they intended to drive the UTV. They were mere moments from arriving at the field when Deputy Ashurst came up behind them with his police lights flashing and attempted to pull them over. Less than 30 seconds later, according to the complaints, Deputy Ashurst rammed their vehicle in what is known as a Precision-Immobilization Technique, or “PIT” maneuver. The UTV flipped, and Mr. St. John was killed.
PIT maneuvers are controversial and potentially dangerous tactics in which a law enforcement officer uses their vehicle to force another into a spin and stop. Studying PIT maneuvers over a four-year period, the Washington Post found at least 30 people had been killed across the country, and hundreds more injured, through police use of the tactic. As a result of their danger, many police departments—including those in Louisville and Lexington, the two largest cities in Kentucky—prohibit the maneuver except in situations in which deadly force is justified.
And as dangerous as PIT maneuvers have proven against regular automobiles, the complaints argue, the tactic should never have been used against a side-by-side UTV of the kind St. John was operating, which is “an open-air vehicle with a smaller frame than a car, with a higher center of gravity, a smaller wheelbase, and an inherent risk of rollovers, ejections, and, most importantly, catastrophic injuries.” All of these risks, it goes on the say, were known to Deputy Ashurst, as such UTVs are common in the area.
“For reasons known only to him, Deputy Ashurst chose to initiate a dangerous high-speed, high-risk pursuit and a dangerous maneuver against a vulnerable vehicle, with no legal justification,” says attorney Kathryn Montenegro of the civil rights law firm of Loevy + Loevy, who represents the plaintiffs. “Having no just cause, he did not call the traffic stop into dispatch, nor the pursuit, nor his decision to ram the UTV. So we want him to explain to a federal jury why he took these reckless actions that ended the life of one young man and severely harmed another.”
This is not the first time Deputy Ashurst has caused a death on the job, nor even the first time he has been sued over a wrongful death while with the Knox Co. Sheriff’s Department. In 2016, the complaints allege, Ashurst and another law enforcement officer severely beat an unarmed man named Jessie J. Mills, before Ashurst then shot him to death. The subsequent lawsuit brought by Mr. Mills’ family was settled for an undisclosed amount of money.
Today’s complaints characterize Deputy Ashurst as “a dangerous law-enforcement officer with a history of committing unjustified violence toward citizens.” Furthermore, it alleges, the Knox County Sheriff knew about his troubling and violent history prior to hiring him. Sheriff Smith knew that Ashurst had twice been denied employment with the Kentucky State Police (KSP) after a background investigation was conducted, and that Ashurst had been forced to leave the Laurel County Sheriff’s Dept. due to a scandal. Sheriff Smith also knew that Ashurst had been fired from the Livingston Police Department after engaging in physically threatening and aggressive behavior, and that the Harlan County Sheriff’s Department had declined to rehire him due to multiple citizen complaints lodged against him.
Deputy Ashurst, the complaints allege, does not shy away from his violent reputation, and in fact displays “a total lack of remorse for his actions.” Within days of killing Todd St. John, for example, Deputy Ashurst changed his Facebook profile picture to a photo of a side-by-side UTV of the kind Mr. St. John died in.
“Deputy Ashurst has been kicked out of one law enforcement agency after another, at each one demonstrating terrible judgment, recklessly violent behavior, and a troubling disregard for human life,” says attorney Amy Robinson Staples. “Sheriff Smith knew all of this, and still somehow decided that Mikey Ashurst was the sort of man who should be protecting the people of Knox County. He released this armed and dangerous individual into the community, and so he too bears responsibility for this totally preventable tragedy.”
The lawsuits charge Ashurst with several counts of violating the civil rights of Mr. St. John and Mr. Stewart, including wrongful death, excessive force, and assault and battery. In addition to wrongful death, Sheriff Smith and the County are further charged with negligent supervision and training and negligent hiring.
The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Amy Robinson Staples, Kathryn Montenegro, Elliot Slosar, and Michael Kanovitz of the Chicago-based law firm of Loevy + Loevy.
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For a copy of the complaints in this case click here and here.