Second lawsuit filed in wake of Terry Greer shooting incident

Published 4:33 pm Monday, January 12, 2015

A second lawsuit has been filed in the case of former Gardendale minister Rev. Terry Greer.

Greer’s daughter, Suzanna, has filed a lawsuit against the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church, accusing it and one or more conference officials of being responsible for her father shooting and killing his wife and her mother Lisa, as well as wounding Suzanna on Jan. 10, 2013. Terry Greer also attempted to commit suicide by stabbing in the same incident.

The details of why Suzanna Greer is seeking damages from the conference are not yet known, as her attorneys have asked the judge in the case to seal the compaint, preventing the public from viewing it.

Those details will remain sealed until Jefferson County Circuit Judge Elisabeth French rules on the plaintiff’s request.

The estate of Lisa Greer is not a party to this new lawsuit.

A North Alabama Conference spokesman declined to comment on the case.

Terry Greer, who was senior pastor of Gardendale-Mt. Vernon United Methodist Church, was found not guilty of murder because of mental defect last year. Since then, he’s been held in a secured medical facility in Tuscaloosa.

Terry Greer was determined by a court-appointed doctor to have suffered from cardiac dementia at the time of the incident, as well as effects from a brain injury suffered in a car wreck three months before the shooting.

A similar lawsuit was filed by both Terry and Suzanna Greer, as well as Lisa Greer’s estate, against Brookwood Medical Center and a group of psychiatrists last November, accusing both parties of malpractice in their treatment of Terry Greer before the shooting.