Family members suing West Palm Beach over a police street unit’s chase that resulted in two of their loved ones dead are citing new evidence of past misbehavior, according to legal documents filed this week in federal court.
That evidence was brought to light by a WLRN investigation from January, which reported how officers in the West Palm Beach Police Department’s “GHOST” unit left a trail of disciplinary issues and warning signs well before the deadly chase and crash that killed Jenice Woods, 27, Woods’ unborn child, and Marcia Pochette, 57, on July 30, 2024.
Prosecutors said seven West Palm cops, five of whom were in the Gang & Habitual Offender Suppression Team (GHOST), led a high-speed chase into Boynton Beach that ended in a deadly wreck, killing Woods and Pochette. Instead of stopping to help, they turned around and drove back to West Palm — without telling anyone what happened, according to the 15th Judicial Circuit State Attorney's office.
All seven were charged and fired. They’ve all pleaded not guilty.
WLRN uncovered how the officers not only accumulated prior disciplinary violations with little accountability, but also how one GHOST cop in particular led another chase that resulted in a crash that killed four people, exactly three years earlier.
READ MORE: Cops in South Florida elite 'GHOST' unit left a trail of red flags before fatal chase
Lawyers for Woods and Pochette’s family allege that the city of West Palm Beach knew that the officers “had documented histories of dangerous driving, pursuit related misconduct, and body worn camera and accountability violations.”
“Despite this knowledge, the City advanced or retained these officers without imposing corrective supervision, training, or discipline sufficient to prevent the conduct that caused the deaths of (Woods and Pochette),” they wrote.
The GHOST unit was an "acute expression" of department practice, the plaintiffs' attorneys wrote, evidenced by "its combination of unmarked vehicles, a separate and unmonitored radio channel, deactivated body worn cameras, and the absence of any proactive supervisory review."
The city declined to comment, citing an active legal case. The police department did not respond to WLRN's request for comment.
Prior deadly chase
Former Chief Frank Adderley started GHOST in late 2019. During his career, Adderley participated in and expanded problematic crime response teams.
Then-newly-elected Mayor Keith James brought on Adderley to lead the agency, as part of a larger mandate to stamp out surging violent crime in the city.
Within less than two years of GHOST’s existence, Pierre Etienne, one of the now-indicted officers, led a chase that ended in a crash that killed four people on July 30, 2021, WLRN's reporting revealed for the first time.
Etienne and two GHOST detectives pursued a 17-year-old boy in a stolen car and chased him on Beeline Highway near Palm Beach Gardens. They did so “in violation of the Department's pursuit policy,” the attorneys wrote.
WLRN reported inconsistencies between what officers wrote in reports, what they said and other records.
Etienne stated that officers stopped chasing the teenager miles before the boy plowed into an SUV. However, another GHOST officer said on captured body camera footage that they “followed it down just to make sure it was out of the area.”
Additionally, Etienne did not turn on his body camera until after the crash.
Despite the inconsistencies, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, which investigated the wreck and charged the teenager with vehicular homicide, said it determined the chase ended where officers said it did.
Attorneys for Woods and Pochette wrote that the city should have been on notice from this incident — and the two lawsuits that arose from it — that GHOST was dangerous.
The attorneys filed the first lawsuit complaint in December 2025 in the U.S. Southern District of Florida.
In response, the city and the officers maintained they are not liable. Lawyers for the city alleged there was not sufficient evidence to prove a pattern of misconduct of GHOST chases.
On Tuesday, attorneys for Pochette and Woods entered in a proposed amended lawsuit complaint with the new information. They are seeking U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s permission to enter it into court.
