Olivia Duty, 22, was driving her car north on Ohio 19 in Ottawa
County on July 16, 2010, when a pickup slammed into her car at Oak
Harbor Southeast Road.
Her boyfriend, Ian Huffman, 24, of Elmore, was killed on impact.
The driver of the pickup, Timothy Johnson, 43, was charged criminally
in Huffman’s death, and for injuring Duty. He had been answering an
emergency call as a volunteer firefighter for Portage Township Fire
District when the crash happened.
More than two years later, after a mistrial and months of litigation
in a civil lawsuit, Johnson pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and
attempted vehicular homicide. He was sentenced to nine months in jail.
His pickup reached speeds of up to 98 mph only seconds before the crash, experts said at the trial.
In October, Duty and Huffman’s parents, Maureen and John Huffman,
agreed to a $1.57 million settlement in their lawsuit against Johnson.
In the comments section of a newspaper article posted online by the
Toledo Blade about the settlement, Johnson’s ex-wife, Christina
Kinsler-Johnson, contributed several posts through her Facebook account.
In a lawsuit filed in Erie County Common Pleas Court this week, Duty
alleges Kinsler-Johnson’s comments were false misrepresentations of fact
— especially when she asserted that Duty caused the crash and lied to
the Ohio State Highway Patrol about it.
Duty contends Kinsler-Johnson intended to cause her emotional
distress by posting more than a dozen comments about the case with
misleading information.
“Johnson’s conduct was so extreme and outrageous to go beyond the
bounds of decency and was such that the conduct can be considered
utterly intolerable in a civilized society,” according to the lawsuit.
Now, under allegations of intentional infliction of emotional
distress and defamation, Duty seeks more than $50,000 in damages against
Kinsler-Johnson.
Ian’s father, John, is representing her in the lawsuit.
