Georgia lawyer charged with involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of his wife
A Georgia lawyer was charged with involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct on Wednesday for the shooting death of his wife in September.
Claud “Tex” McIver, who recently retired from a partner position practicing employment law with Fisher Phillips, has been under investigation by police for three months, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports. He also serves as vice chairperson of Georgia’s State Election Board.
His wife, 64-year-old Diane McIver, was the CEO of Corey Airport Services, which provides billboard advertising in airports. The couple married in 2005.
“This has completely destroyed his life,” the defendant’s brother John “Spike” McIver told the newspaper. “This was his life mate. They were inseparable. This was a horrible accident.”
The couple were in an SUV near downtown Atlanta when the shooting occurred, according to the newspaper. McIver was in the back seat, and his wife was in the passenger seat. Dani Jo Carter, a friend, was driving. Diane McIver was shot in the back, and died early the next morning.
A spokesperson for Tex McIver initially stated that McIver had the .38-caliber revolver in his lap, and it went off when they drove over a bump. McIver had safety concerns about people approaching his vehicle the night he shot his wife, the spokesperson said, and was also worried about nearby Black Lives Matter protests.
That statement was later refuted by Stephen Maples, McIver’s defense lawyer. McIver wasn’t concerned about the protesters, Maples said. His client was asleep, with a gun in his lap, and it went off when McIver was startled awake, Maples told the newspaper. Carter, the driver of the car, told the newspaper in November that the SUV was stopped at a stoplight when the gun was fired.
“We’re very, very disappointed. We feel it was an accident. Hopefully the grand jury would dismiss it when they hear the evidence,” Maples said. “He was not doing anything in a reckless or negligent manner.”
McIver turns 74 years old on Thursday, Maples told the newspaper. A graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, McIver was a captain with the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General Corps from 1968 to 1972, according to his law firm profile page. In 1971, he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for combat-related service in Vietnam.
In 1990, McIver was indicted on three counts of aggravated assault and one firearm count, after teenagers claimed that he fired shots into their car outside his DeKalb County home, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported in an earlier story. The charges were dismissed after the parties agreed to settle the matter privately.
“We are aware of the charges filed against Mr. McIver today and understand that this is a difficult time for him and for all of those involved,” Roger Quillen, the chairman and managing partner of Fisher Phillips, told the ABA Journal. “Had it not been for all that has happened, Mr. McIver had expected to remain active in the practice of law through next year and then retire. On Monday, he informed us that he had decided to accelerate his retirement to the end of this year. We respect the deeply personal and private nature of this matter and will refrain from commenting further until the legal process has been completed.”
