GREENSBURG — A former state senator's son was "reckless and careless" with his father's handgun, resulting in the shooting death of the boy's friend, according to a wrongful-death suit filed Monday.

The 16-page lawsuit against former senator Robert Regola III; his wife, Janette; and their son, Bobby, marked the first time Louis Farrell's family specifically accused Bobby Regola of being with Farrell and handling the gun when he died. A coroner had concluded it was suicide.

The suit contends Louis Farrell, 14, was killed in July 2006 when Bobby, his next-door neighbor and friend, went with him to smoke in the woods.

Bobby brought along a 9 mm Taurus handgun that was registered to the senator, according to the lawsuit. Bobby Regola handled the firearm in a "reckless and careless manner so as to permit the firearm to discharge into the cranium of Louie Farrell directly and proximately causing his death," the lawsuit says.

"I've said all along I don't believe Louis was in the woods alone when his life ended," Farrell attorney Jon Perry said.

Robert Regola, 46, was acquitted in July of perjury and weapons charges stemming from Farrell's death and the coroner's inquest into it.

Regola, a Republican one-term senator, abandoned his re-election campaign less than a month after his acquittal saying he feared opponents and the media would continue to make an issue of the charges.

Bobby Regola has been adjudicated delinquent, the juvenile court equivalent of a conviction, on charges that he illegally possessed the gun as a minor and was sentenced to probation. He has never been charged or directly implicated in Farrell's death.