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Inset: Marganne Allen (GoFundMe). Background: The scene where Allen was struck by a vehicle in Oregon (KPTV).
The husband of an Oregon bicyclist killed by a Drug Enforcement Administration alleges in a lawsuit that the agent was negligent when he ran a stop sign during a drug surveillance operation.
Mark A. Meleason, the husband of Marganne Allen, 53, says in his lawsuit seeking $2.5 million that Samuel Landis, 39, was negligent and caused Allen’s death on March 28, 2023, in Salem.
In his lawsuit, Meleason alleges the DEA, Salem Police, and Oregon State Police allowed the authorities to disobey traffic laws as they were conducting their sting operation on a potential drug dealer. He argued there was no emergency when Landis ran the stop sign and no exigent circumstances that would justify task force members speeding or disobeying traffic laws, the court documents said.
Landis was initially charged with criminally negligent homicide in Marion County Circuit Court, but his case was transferred to federal court, where it was dismissed this year after a judge ruled he was immune from prosecution under a clause that allowed Landis’ attorneys to argue a federal defense of immunity from prosecution because he was a DEA agent actively surveilling a suspected drug dealer while on duty.
The victim’s husband, Mark A. Meleason, disagrees with the ruling.
“His driving behavior was like playing Russian roulette with his vehicle aimed at the public,” Meleason told the Salem Statesman Journal. “The judge’s decision granted Landis immunity for killing my wife, my soulmate.”
Landis’ attorney, David Angeli, said his client was conducting a police operation that day, cracking down on the fentanyl crisis in the area, even though Marion County prosecutors had argued Landis wasn’t in danger or in an emergency when he hit Allen.
Following Allen’s death, mourned the mother of two and program manager for Oregon’s Agricultural Water Quality Resources Department.
“She was an avid bicyclist,” family friend Michael Baird told local Fox affiliate KPTV. “I always used to see her riding a bicycle to and from work, rain or shine. She was well-liked, well thought of. She was a scientist and very avid about her work and being a good steward for the state of Oregon and the resources.”