GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — The family of a 16-year-old girl murdered in 2022 has filed a civil wrongful death lawsuit against the apartment complex where she was presumably abducted.
Susana Morales vanished in July 2022. Her naked body was found in the woods nearly 20 miles away in Feb. 2023.
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Ex-Doraville police officer Miles Bryant, then 22, was charged with her death.
According to the lawsuit, filed earlier this week by Morales’ parents, Bryant was employed as a courtesy officer at the Sterling Glen Apartments, where she was last seen.
The lawsuit names the parent companies that managed, owned and operated Sterling Glen Apartments.
In the five years before Morales’ disappearance, the lawsuit alleges there were several instances of criminal activity, including shootings, auto thefts, burglaries, carjackings and more.
It goes on to say that the apartment complex should have known prior to hiring Bryant, that he had a history of “insubordinate...grossly disrespectful behavior” with the Doraville Police Department stemming from an incident where he hid a gun under a hoodie while approaching a fellow officer in Nov. 2021.
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They say he also had a history of being late to work and having physical altercations with his girlfriend, as well as arguing loudly with her in his apartment at Sterling Glen.
Bryant reportedly also called his job as a courtesy officer nothing more than “a paycheck,” according to the lawsuit.
For those reasons, the lawsuit claims that the apartment complex and its parent companies were negligent in hiring Bryant.
The lawsuit requests a jury trial and seeks monetary damages.
Bryant is expected to stand trial in the criminal case starting in June.
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