VANCOUVER, Wash. - The sons of a 54-year-old man who was stabbed to death by a Clark County sheriff's deputy in May 2025 have filed a $27 million tort claim against the county, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.
Marc Fogle, a commercial truck driver, was stabbed 17 times in the back in a "breath-test" room by Deputy Bryson Layton, barely an hour after the deputy arrested him for suspected drunk driving following a collision with a parked car.
The sons' attorneys allege Layton and numerous deputies misused their body-worn cameras to obstruct evidence. According to the claim filed Thursday, Layton's camera was off at the time of the incident, a surveillance camera in the room was unmonitored with no recording available, and deputies who responded to the stabbing muted their cameras on arrival.
"Body cameras have been highly important evidence in use-of-force cases. Video often shows whether a killing was justified or not," attorney Mark Lindquist wrote in a press statement. "Here, the muting or shutting down of body cameras raises serious questions that need to be answered." Clark County officials declined to comment, citing litigation.
The claim also alleges Layton failed to realize or ignored that Fogle showed signs of "serious physical impairment" and needed immediate medical care during the arrest. After the arrest, Layton transported Fogle to a Washington State Patrol facility off Interstate 5 and took him into the breath-test room, where a fight began, according to a March report by the Washington Office of Independent Investigation.
The sons characterize the deputy as escalating the situation, alleging he negligently resorted to violence and attempted to conceal what happened. They allege Layton could have used a Taser equipped to his vest but instead reached for an "unauthorized dagger," and they dispute his later statement to investigators that his Taser model lacked a close-range stun function. State investigators noted that timestamps indicate Layton's camera "is turned off manually, intentionally, or due to the pressure on the button."
Tort claims, used in states including Oregon and Washington, notify a government of an imminent lawsuit and give the parties a chance to resolve the issue, often through settlement, before a lawsuit is filed. Clark County has settled multiple wrongful death claims in recent years, including those brought by the families of Jenoah Donald and Kevin Peterson Jr., two Black men shot and killed by sheriff's deputies in separate incidents in the months after the killing of George Floyd. A sheriff's office spokesperson told OPB in July that the agency intended to investigate why the body-worn cameras were muted.