The family of Leonard Cure has filed a federal lawsuit seeking more than $16 million against Camden County Sheriff’s Deputy Buck William Aldridge and Sheriff Jim Proctor over Cure’s fatal shooting during an October 2023 traffic stop on Interstate 95. The suit, filed February 27, 2024, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia in Brunswick, alleges excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment and accuses the sheriff of failing to discipline deputies with known histories of violence. As of early 2026, the case remains pending.
Who Filed the Suit and What It Alleges
The plaintiffs are Cure’s mother, Mary Cure, and his brothers Michael and Wallace. They are represented by civil rights attorneys Ben Crump and Harry Daniels.1The Brunswick News. Family of Leonard Cure Files Federal Lawsuit Against Camden County Sheriff’s Office2Ben Crump Law. Ben Crump Files Notice of Intent to Sue Officer Who Fatally Shot Leonard Cure
The complaint has two thrusts. Against Aldridge, it alleges the shooting was an unreasonable seizure under the Fourth Amendment. Against Sheriff Proctor, it asserts supervisory liability, contending he knew or should have known that deputies under his command had a propensity for violence and failed to discipline or terminate them. Daniels framed the theory in blunt terms: “This is not just a bad apple. This is a bad orchard.”3CNN. Leonard Cure Family Federal Lawsuit4ABC News. Family of Exonerated Georgia Man Files $16 Million Federal Lawsuit
Mary Cure, speaking when the suit was filed, said it is a “terrible thing that citizens have to police the police,” and argued lethal force should not be the default: “You can shoot, you don’t have to always kill somebody.”3CNN. Leonard Cure Family Federal Lawsuit
Who Leonard Cure Was
Cure spent 16 years in a Florida prison for a 2003 armed robbery of a Dania Beach Walgreens he did not commit. The case against him rested almost entirely on an eyewitness identification by a store clerk that investigators later described as unreliable; there was no physical or forensic evidence, and Cure had an alibi supported by an ATM receipt timestamped at 6:52 a.m. at a bank 3.2 miles from the store, with the robbery occurring around 7:30 a.m.5Sun Sentinel. Man Exonerated After 16 Years in Prison Gets Nearly $1 Million for Wrongful Conviction
The Innocence Project of Florida and the Broward County State Attorney’s Conviction Review Unit reinvestigated the case in 2020. Cure was released on April 14, 2020, his convictions were vacated that December, and Florida later awarded him $817,000 in compensation, a tuition waiver, and a formal apology through a claims bill signed by Governor Ron DeSantis on June 9, 2023.6Innocence Project of Florida. Leonard Cure7Broward State Attorney’s Office. Broward State Attorney Leonard Cure Claims Bill Approved He moved to Georgia after his release.
The Traffic Stop and Shooting
On October 16, 2023, roughly four months after receiving his state compensation, Cure was pulled over on Interstate 95 near the Florida state line by Sergeant Aldridge for speeding and reckless driving. According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Aldridge told Cure he had been driving approximately 100 miles per hour and informed him he was under arrest.8Savannah Morning News. Camden County Shooting Bodycam Leonard Allan Cure
Body and dash camera footage released by the sheriff’s office on October 19, 2023, shows Cure initially cooperating but refusing to place his hands behind his back. Aldridge deployed his Taser, and a physical struggle followed. The GBI reported that Aldridge used his Taser a second time, struck Cure with a baton, then drew his firearm and shot Cure at close range. Cure, 53, died at the scene.9News4Jax. Georgia Deputy Who Shot Killed Exonerated Florida Man Now Faces Federal Charges10CBS News. Leonard Cure Shooting Georgia Florida Exoneration
Seth Miller, executive director of the Innocence Project of Florida, said Cure’s reaction during the stop may have reflected trauma and distrust of law enforcement rooted in his wrongful conviction and 16 years in prison.11CBS Austin. Body Cam Video Shows Exonerated Man Leonard Cure Fatally Shot During Georgia Traffic Stop
Aldridge’s Prior Record
The supervisory-liability claim leans on Aldridge’s employment history. He had been fired from the Kingsland Police Department in August 2017 for violating use-of-force and conduct policies after picking up a woman during a traffic stop and throwing her to the ground to handcuff her, even though she was not being arrested.12CBS News Miami. Georgia Deputy Who Shot Absolved Man Had Prior Firing for Excessive Force That was his third disciplinary infraction at Kingsland, following a 2014 citation for unnecessary force during a traffic stop and a May 2017 incident that earned him a three-day suspension without pay.13First Coast News. Camden County Sergeant Buck Aldridge Indicted Excessive Force Falsifying Records Nine months later, in May 2018, the Camden County Sheriff’s Office hired him. He had disclosed the firing on his application.
The Parallel Criminal Track
The civil lawsuit is separate from the criminal proceedings, and the two have moved in different directions.
Georgia District Attorney Keith Higgins announced on February 25, 2025, that no state criminal charges would be filed against Aldridge for the shooting. Higgins said the “use of deadly force at that point was objectively reasonable given that he was being overpowered at that time.”14News4Jax. Georgia DA Says No Criminal Charges Against Deputy Who Shot Killed Exonerated Florida Man
Federal prosecutors took a broader view. On August 7, 2025, a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Georgia returned a 13-count indictment charging Aldridge with deprivation of rights under color of law and falsifying records. The indictment alleges he used excessive force on four separate occasions between 2021 and 2023 and wrote misleading reports to justify his actions, including tasing and kicking one victim in January 2021, tasing a handcuffed victim and compressing that person’s neck with a Taser grip in August 2021, tasing and punching a victim in June 2022, and tasing a victim in the back of the head in August 2023. The Cure shooting is not among the four incidents cited.15U.S. Department of Justice. Current Camden County Sheriff’s Sgt. Indicted Federal Civil Rights Violations16Fox 59. Former Georgia Deputy Indicted on Charges He Used Excessive Force and Covered It Up in Reports
Aldridge faces up to 10 years in prison for each civil rights count and up to 20 years for each falsifying-records count. The Camden County Sheriff’s Office relieved him of his duties following the indictment.9News4Jax. Georgia Deputy Who Shot Killed Exonerated Florida Man Now Faces Federal Charges He was arraigned on August 28, 2025, pleaded not guilty, and was released on a $10,000 unsecured appearance bond. The criminal case, United States v. Aldridge (2:25-cr-00021), remains in pretrial proceedings, with a motions hearing scheduled for February 18, 2026, on the government’s request to introduce evidence of Aldridge’s pattern of conduct under Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b).17CourtListener. United States v. Aldridge
Where the Lawsuit Stands
The civil case in the Southern District of Georgia remains pending as of early 2026. No settlement has been publicly reported, and no trial date has been announced. The four excessive-force incidents named in the federal indictment, if admitted as evidence in either proceeding, closely track the pattern-of-conduct theory the family’s complaint advances against Sheriff Proctor.