The household of a slain nursing scholar is suing the Tennessee bond firms that helped spring her violent ex-boyfriend from jail, claiming they seemed the opposite approach as he violated his bond settlement to allegedly hunt her down and kill her.
The mutilated physique of 22-year-old Lauren Johansen, from Mississippi, was discovered within the trunk of her automotive in 2024 – after her ex, Bricen Rivers, made bond following his arrest and jailing for allegedly kidnapping and beating her in Nashville months earlier.
Johansen’s father had begged the choose to not launch Rivers, however he was allowed to stroll free on bond simply days later and is accused of killing the faculty scholar quickly after.
Now, the woman’s household needs $150 million from the bond firms that helped set him free.
The lawsuit, filed Saturday in US District Court docket in Nashville, claims the businesses didn’t do sufficient to cease Rivers from violating the phrases of his bond settlement — which was partly their accountability beneath Tennessee regulation.
Regardless of monitoring Rivers with an ankle monitor, the businesses alerted neither authorities nor Johansen’s household when he twice broke his bond settlement and crossed state strains into Mississippi, the place Johansen was attending school for a nursing diploma.
Days after Rivers traveled to Mississippi for the second time, Johansen vanished.
Her physique, overwhelmed to a pulp, was later discovered wrapped in trash luggage and sheets within the trunk of her automotive, which turned up at a cemetery, investigators stated.
Johansen’s father, Lance Johansen, stated the bondsmen and their companions knew Rivers was a menace to his daughter, however did nothing.
“Simply to see my daughter — essentially the most form girl on the planet — simply mutilated and thrown away like a chunk of trash was essentially the most overwhelming factor I’ve ever seen in my life,” he instructed WKRN.
“Why in anyone’s proper thoughts would they let this individual out?” he added.
The woman’s father additionally had selection phrases for the Davidson County courtroom.
“You mainly let an animal out of a cage. It’s like letting a tiger out of a cage on a chunk of meat and he’s going to go proper for it and begin consuming it,” he stated.
Rivers now faces a homicide cost and is being held on a brand new bond of $1 million, in response to the outlet.
Earlier than allegedly killing Johansen, he had spent seven months in jail on accusations of trapping her in his automotive and beating her unconscious whereas on trip in Nashville.
His bond was later lowered from $251,000 to $150,000, which was finally posted by two Nashville firms: Brooke’s Bonding and On Time Bonding — each of which the household is suing.
The Johansen household lawsuit additionally names a non-public monitoring agency and two firms that offered collateral for Rivers’ bond.
