Wichita ? Families of three more victims of Jonathan and Reginald Carr have sued over a clerical error that freed the elder Carr from jail just days before the brothers began their deadly rampage.

The lawsuit, seeking damages from the state for the suffering three men endured before they were shot to death on a snowy soccer field, is likely to be merged with one filed earlier by the widower of an earlier victim, attorneys said.

Attorney Jack Focht, representing the three families, said his clients sued because they felt state officials had brushed them off as they sought answers on the parole paperwork error that let Reginald Carr leave Ford County Jail in December 2000.

Bill Miskell, spokesman for the Department of Corrections, said he could not comment on litigation. The state and the secretary of corrections are named as defendants in the lawsuits, which allege that Reginald Carr would not have been free to kill except for the state’s negligence.

The parents of Aaron Sander, Jason Befort and Brad Heyka filed the lawsuit late last week in Sedgwick County District Court, where the widower of Ann Walenta sued a few days earlier.

The error showed that Reginald Carr’s parole for earlier crimes expired on Dec. 1, 2000, rather than June 1, 2001.