NC Supreme Court clears path for trial in Highway Patrol intern’s death
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Supreme Court denied review, sending the case back to Pitt County for possible jury trial.
- The complaint says Trooper Omar Romero Mendoza drove 113 mph and lost control.
- A June 2023 Superior Court dismissal was revived by the Court of Appeals in Jan. 2025.
The mother of a North Carolina State Highway Patrol intern killed in a 113 mph crash may finally get to ask a jury whether the trooper driving the car should be held responsible for his death.
Lisa Higgins’ 2022 lawsuit is headed toward a trial after the N.C. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal.
Michael Higgins, 22, was a senior at East Carolina University and an aspiring state trooper completing an internship with the Highway Patrol when he died in August 2020.
Court records say Michael Higgins was riding in the front seat of a patrol car when Trooper Omar Romero Mendoza, with one hand on the steering wheel, lost control of the car while driving 113 mph on a dark Pitt County road he had never driven on before.
Lisa Higgins’ lawsuit alleges that Romero and his supervisors ignored policies that, if followed, would have kept her son safe.
Every trial means something different, said Lisa Higgins’ attorney, Jim White.
For Lisa Higgins, it would mean bringing change and accountability, he said.
“If it takes a trial to get there, we’re ready,” he said.
A mother’s search for answers
After the crash, Lisa Higgins says Highway Patrol officials initially told her little about how her son died, promising additional information that never came.
She became one of two North Carolina mothers who spent months or years fighting the agency for records about a son’s fatal crash involving state troopers.
A 2025 News & Observer review of Highway Patrol lawsuits and court settlements revealed five cases, including Higgins’, where Highway Patrol officials took steps to shield themselves from scrutiny after controversial actions by troopers. Some of those steps included offering to drop charges in exchange for not filing a complaint, lying about a trooper’s actions, and withholding information from family members.
After hiring one attorney, Higgins rejected a $1 million settlement offer that would have limited further disclosures and required no admission of wrongdoing, she and White said in interviews last year. Higgins then hired White and filed suit in 2022.
The lawsuit gave her access to crash reconstruction reports, patrol car video and sworn testimony from Highway Patrol employees.
“We kind of found out how many people failed Michael,” Lisa Higgins told The N&O last year.
How did Michael Higgins die?
Around 12:20 a.m. on Aug. 22, 2020, Romero had brought Michael Higgins to a crash scene in Pitt County, where a driver had crashed into a ditch. Another trooper told Romero to pursue a driver who had stopped at the crash but then left. The trooper said he smelled alcohol on the driver’s breath.
Romero turned on his lights and pushed his cruiser to at least 113 mph on a dark road with a 55 mph speed limit, according to a Highway Patrol report in court documents. Romero missed a sign warning of a curve ahead and lost control when he applied the brakes as the road started to bend, the report states. The car launched off the roadway, crashing through a utility pole, a fence and two trees.
EMS workers cut Michael Higgins, who was wearing his seat belt, out of the wreckage and pronounced him dead on the side of the road, the report said. Romero suffered minor injuries.
Romero, who had been a trooper for about two years, violated a policy requiring officers to consider public safety before initiating a traffic response, according to court documents.
His punishment: A written warning.
What Lisa Higgins’ State Highway Patrol lawsuit uncovered
Lisa Higgins’ lawsuit contends Romero ignored policies prohibiting chases involving civilians in the car and failed to notify a supervisor about the chase. Her lawsuit also contends that Romero, under Highway Patrol policy, didn’t have enough experience to have an intern in his car.
In court filings and hearings, Romero’s attorney, who is being paid by the state, disputed the assertion that the crash violated the chase policy.
Romero was attempting to catch up to a woman suspected of driving drunk, a leading cause of traffic deaths nationwide, Romero’s attorney, Brian Williams, said at a hearing, according to a transcript.
“The mistakes that were made were confined to a three- to four-second period as he approached the curve,” Williams said. “He just made a bad call.”
What has happened in the State Highway Patrol lawsuit so far?
In June 2023, Superior Court Judge William Wolfe dismissed the case against Romero, ruling Higgins’ allegations didn’t meet the legal threshold for gross negligence or willful and wanton conduct.
She appealed. On Jan. 15, a divided Court of Appeals revived the lawsuit.
“It should be for the jury to determine whether defendant Romero’s actions were needless or manifested a reckless indifference to the rights of Michael,” Judge John S. Arrowood wrote in an opinion.
Romero’s attorneys appealed to the N.C. Supreme Court, warning the ruling could erode officers’ immunity, a protection they say allows police to do their jobs without hesitation.
“This ruling has a chilling effect on daily law enforcement activities on public roads, state-wide,” attorneys for the troopers argued in court documents.
On Feb. 21, 2025, the Supreme Court paused the lawsuit while it weighed whether it would hear the case. On June 17, it denied Romero’s petition to hear the case.
The decision sends the case back to Pitt County, where a jury could now decide whether Romero was grossly negligent.
