MASCOTTE — The family of a woman killed earlier this month when she was hit by another motorist fleeing law enforcement plans to sue the agencies involved in the chase.

Kimberly King’s family retained Matt Morgan of Morgan & Morgan after King’s Cadillac Escalade was struck head-on by a woman fleeing sheriff’s deputies in Mascotte on May 12. Mascotte police, who were aiding deputies, threw spiked sticks in front of the suspect’s southbound Kia in an attempt to puncture its tires.

The Stop Sticks, rows of sharpened quills designed to puncture the tires and slow down the vehicle, struck at least one of the suspect’s tires, but the driver lost control of her vehicle and crashed head on into King.

Morgan said he plans to gain access to all the investigative reports and other vital documents to help determine why the “senseless tragedy” occurred.

“We will examine the current policies and procedures in place and analyze whether they were followed… ,” he said.

Morgan, who plans to sue the Sheriff’s Office and Mascotte Police, said he hopes a lawsuit would prevent similar pursuits from occurring by highlighting the “reckless conduct” that led to the crash.

“If responsible parties are not held accountable for their actions, they have no reason to change,” Morgan said.

The Sheriff’s Office has placed the five deputies involved in the chase on administrative leave while it investigates the circumstances to determine whether the chase was handled according to department policy.

But spokespersons for both agencies have supported their officers.

“It’s tragic, but they did what they thought was best and did what they were trained to do,” Mascotte Police Chief Eric Pedersen said in an earlier interview about the two officers who deployed the Stop Sticks.

Pedersen and a spokeswoman with the Florida Highway Patrol, which is investigating the crash, blamed the death on the driver eluding law enforcement, Mylynda Martinez.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, deputies spotted the 27-year-old Martinez leaving a drug house in the Bassville Park area of Leesburg. They followed her 2009 Kia and tried to initiate a traffic stop after she failed to stop properly for a stop bar — the thick white line painted on the roadway at stop signs or traffic signals that designate where a motorist is supposed to stop.

Martinez was able to drive around some Stop Sticks deployed by deputies during the chase but not those deployed by Mascotte police.

Morgan said he expects to win the suit, given the “glaring failure” in the pursuit. He said the Stop Sticks were deployed in one lane of a two-way highway at a bend in the road. And oncoming traffic should have been blocked in the northbound lane in which King was traveling.

“Stop Sticks should never have been deployed in the first place,” said Morgan. “This is a very clear-cut failure.”