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Lawsuit filed in Morgan Freeman accident

By Janice Broach - bio | email

The passenger who was with Morgan Freeman the night of a car crash that left both injured insisted at a press conference Wednesday she was never romantically linked to Freeman, and is suing the Oscar winner for negligence.

Demaris Meyer, along with attorney Gloria Allred, announced the lawsuit Wednesday in Los Angeles.  Meyer was the passenger in a car with Freeman in August 2008 when it went off a Mississippi road and crashed.

In a federal lawsuit filed in Mississppi, Meyer claims Freeman was drinking during dinner on the night of the accident, and had at least one more drink at a separate location afterwards before the crash occurred.At

Meyer is suing Freeman for medical expenses, pain and suffering, lost wages, permanent disability, and additional damages.  At the press conference, Meyer displayed photos taken after the accident that she said helped explain the injuries she suffered.

After the press conference, Freeman's attorney, Bill Luckett, told Action News 5 the actor is in South Africa, but knows about the lawsuit.

"I haven't had a reaction from him," Luckett said. "He's making a Mandela movie, and he's been over there for eight or nine days, and will be there for the next three months."

Luckett said he has not seen the lawsuit, and did not want to comment. 

Also at the press conference, Meyer denied she was the 'other woman' in Freeman's life, and said she was not the one that broke up the actor's marriage.

In the days following the accident last August, Luckett told media outlets that Freeman and his wife of 24 years, Myrna Colley-Lee, had been separated since December 2007 and were getting a divorce. Several media outlets reported that the 48-year-old Meyer was Freeman's mistress.

Meyer said Wednesday she met Freeman the night of the accident at a dinner party. She says Freeman agreed to let her stay at one of three houses on his property, so that she "would have an easier drive to work the next morning."

Click here to read the lawsuit.