Attorneys for the City of Manchester and two of its police officers declined interviews to address claims in a Delaware County family's lawsuit that police are covering up evidence in a December 2020 crash.

The parents of Augustin "Gus" Mormann are suing for wrongful death, after Mormann's motorcycle crashed during a police pursuit near Manchester. Attorney Dave O'Brien is representing the family and says his collision reconstruction expert determined a Manchester police car, driven by Lieutenant James Wessels, hit Mormann's motorcycle and sent it off the road. The lawsuit also accuses Lt. Wessels and Manchester Police Chief Jim Hauschild of conspiring to cover up video evidence of the crash from Lt. Wessel's patrol car camera.

The lawsuit states Lt. Wessels later claimed he "forgot" to turn on his patrol car's camera.

"These recording systems in police cruisers are set up to automatically turn on when the lights and sirens go on," O'Brien says. "So it's quite unusual to say someone forgot to turn on the recording device."

O'Brien also hired an analyst to look at that camera.

Photos from Michael Primeau, a forensic video analyst with Primeau Forensics, LTD, show the recording device was kept at Manchester PD in a sealed evidence bag dated a day before the crash. A second bag with the recording unit inside is dated 12/10/2020. A chain of custody form with the recorder says it was stored on the 10th, but Primeau reports the recorded footage on the unit continued for an additional three months after it was supposedly secured into evidence.

"There definitely was a conspiracy at a minimum, I mean we've caught them red-handed manipulating evidence," O'Brien told Iowa's News Now last week. "They backdated it 12/10/2020 but there's no way a recording device in a sealed plastic bag could be recording traffic stops three months later."

Douglas Phillips, an attorney defending Lt. Wessels, Chief Hauschild, and the city, says there was no video to hide.

He sent Iowa's News Now a statement, which reads in full:

We note that as trial approaches, Mr. Mormann’s attorneys have ramped up their efforts to try this lawsuit in the news and to try to taint the jury pool. This incident occurred over 1 1/2 years ago and is scheduled for trial in a few short months. Thus, the Chief of Police, Lt. Wessels and the City of Manchester will continue to refrain from commenting publicly, preferring to have their good names cleared in a Court of Law. We are confident that the citizens of Delaware County will see these public comments as nothing more than a veiled attempt at distracting from the facts of this case where Mr. Mormann unfortunately sustained life ending injuries, the cause of which was his reckless and illegal driving at speeds of over 100 miles per hour to evade law enforcement after having ingested multiple illegal substances. No efforts were made to conceal non-existent video footage, as alleged by Mr. Mormann's attorneys. Very simply, there is no footage because the officer did not have the opportunity to log in and activate the camera, in light of the perceived and imminent danger Mr. Mormann presented to the citizens of Manchester as he illegally raced through their streets at an extraordinarily high rate of speed. Fortunately, there is other, ample evidence, including multiple eyewitnesses that demonstrate Mr. Mormann and his illegal conduct were the cause of his death, as will be proven in this unfortunate suit filed by others seeking to financially benefit from this self-made tragedy. The attorney's comments are fairly typical for those with a victimization mentality. Blame the cop who was doing his job for the death of his drug influenced criminal client. Mr. Mormann was not a victim. He was a criminal who died as a result of his own reckless conduct while evading arrest. Fortunately, for the citizens of Manchester, Mr. Mormann only killed himself, and did not take out a school bus, a mother and child crossing the street, or some other innocent bystander. That would have been a true tragedy. We look forward to the facts coming out at trial.

A jury trial has been scheduled for November in Delaware County.