Testimony and evidence in a wrongful death suit against the Bureau of Indian Affairs documents that employees saw signs of a colleague's drinking problem well before he was involved in a fatal accident.

Testimony showed that Lloyd Larson once failed to show up for work for a four-day period. In a deposition, Larson said his absence was probably related to a four-day incarceration for pleading guilty to drunk driving.

An acting supervisor once wrote a memo about an incident in which Larson claimed he was at a clinic. But the supervisor allegedly saw him drunk outside a bar and package store. The supervisor also saw a notice of one of Larson's drunk driving citations in The Navajo Times.

Larson was driving drunk when his government vehicle hit and killed two Nebraska couples. The family of one couple is in court against the BIA. The family of the other couple settled for $2 million.

Get the Story:
Testimony: Larson's Drinking Was Evident (The Albuquerque Journal 4/16)

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