The parents of former LSU football star Kyren Lacy have filed a lawsuit against the Louisiana State Police (LSP), alleging that a mishandled and falsified investigation directly led to their son taking his own life.
Kenneth Lacy and Kandace Washington filed the suit on Friday, just days before the first anniversary of their son’s tragic death. The lawsuit targets the LSP and two specific troopers, claiming that their reckless misconduct, false arrest, and malicious prosecution caused Kyren extreme emotional distress, which ultimately resulted in his suicide in April 2025.
The ordeal began in January 2025 following a fatal head-on traffic collision in Chackbay, Louisiana, which claimed the life of 78-year-old Herman Hall. At the time, State Police accused Lacy of recklessly passing multiple vehicles at high speeds, which they claimed forced another driver to abruptly brake and swerve, resulting in the deadly crash.
Based on this investigation, Lacy was arrested on January 12, 2025, and booked on severe charges, including negligent homicide, felony hit-and-run, and reckless operation of a vehicle.
However, his parents’ lawsuit paints a drastically different picture of what actually happened, both during the crash and throughout the subsequent investigation.
According to the suit, the investigating troopers authored a false crash report that contradicted available video evidence. The parents allege that investigators actively tried to pin the blame on their son to protect the actual at-fault driver.
Among the most shocking claims in the lawsuit is that a trooper instructed a witness to say Lacy caused the wreck. When the witness refused and explicitly pointed the finger at another driver involved (“that lady behind me… she caused the wreck”), the trooper allegedly marked the statement as “refused” and turned off his body camera.
Furthermore, the lawsuit claims that troopers failed to identify or interview a passenger in Lacy’s vehicle who was clearly visible on video. Instead, they allegedly shifted the blame away from the driver who actually caused the wreck. That driver was initially ticketed at the scene for “following too close,” but the suit claims troopers later altered the citation to “crossing left of center” to deliberately implicate Lacy.
Adding to the controversy, body camera footage reportedly shows a trooper assuring the other driver at the hospital that she wouldn’t face charges and telling her not to worry about her initial ticket, saying the trooper who wrote it “kind of jumped the gun.” The LSP also allegedly omitted the driver’s prior history of being cited for following too closely in 2015 and 2020.
The intense public scrutiny, damage to his reputation, loss of professional opportunities, and the weight of the looming grand jury took a severe mental toll on the former football star. On April 12, 2025, Kyren Lacy tragically took his own life.
Heartbreakingly, just one day prior to his death, an independent review by an investigator for the Lafourche District Attorney had already found “several inconsistencies” in the LSP’s handling of the case. The review noted that troopers had falsely given the impression that Lacy was actively passing vehicles at the time the crash occurred.
Now, his parents are seeking justice. They are pursuing damages for wrongful death, survival action, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, stating in the lawsuit: “But for Defendants’ fabricated investigation, false arrest and malicious prosecution, Mr. Lacy would be alive today.”
