RICHMOND, Va. — The mother of a dead Virginia police informant is alleging in a pair of lawsuits that city authorities are responsible for her son fatally overdosing on opiates that he was coerced to purchase while undercover.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports Donna Watson, the administrator of her son Troy Howlett’s estate, is seeking $10 million in general damages plus $350,000 in punitive damages for what she claims was his wrongful death by Hopewell police of a fentanyl-laced heroin overdose in July 2018.
Her complaint says authorities knew Howlett was addicted to opiates and that he ingested some of the illegal drugs that he was forced to buy as an informant.
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