On March 30, a Georgia resident filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Franklin County, Sheriff Steve Thomas, and three Franklin County Sheriff’s Office deputies, alleging the “use of excessive force” and the “denial of adequate medical care,” both in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. A jury trial has been requested by both the plaintiff and the defendant. As of June 1, the date of the trial had not been set.
On May 31, 2018, a Franklin County Grand Jury indicted Kenteryon Cortez Kinsey, 27, of Alamo, on charges of fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, driving on improper registration, speeding, reckless driving, and improper lane change and turn signal violation.
The charges stemmed from an April 3, 2018, incident in which Franklin County Sheriff deputies arrested Kinsey after observing him speeding on Interstate 85 in Franklin County. It was during this arrest that Kinsey alleges officers conducted an “an unprovoked and malicious tasering” after which “no medical treatment was offered or provided to Plaintiff Kinsey,” according to the complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, Athens Division.
Plaintiff’s account
ConnectLocal News spoke with Kinsey by phone, who acknowledged that he was speeding and driving “recklessly,” and that he was openly carrying a weapon, unconcealed, on his hip, but stated that when he was pulled over, he offered no resistance and complied with officer instructions.
In an interview on May 31 Kinsey described the events of that night:
“I was coming from out of state (on Interstate 85) on my motorcycle and I was, well, I was giving it the gas and supposedly a police officer was on the side of the road and I guess he came from the side of the road and turned on his blue lights, but I was already driving fast and reckless and I didn’t even see him,” Kinsey told ConnectLocal reporter Jessica Waters.
Further up the road, they tried to set up a little roadblock or something like that, and I pulled over because I finally saw the lights, so I pulled over and turned off my motorcycle and the next thing I knew, they were saying ‘freeze’ and whatnot, and so I didn’t even really move because I had a gun on my hip and I wasn’t going to move.
The next thing I know, an officer picks me up off of the motorcycle and slams me to the ground and I had a helmet on but he started beating my head against the ground and then next thing I know another officer pulls up and says “oh you thought you were going to get away” and tells me to put my hands behind my back. My hands were already behind my back when they were beating my head into the ground. I already knew I was fixing to go to jail or whatever, that was just the situation, so I was just complying.
So, I had my hands behind my back before he told me to put my hands behind my back, and he repeated it, and I didn’t say anything, I just shrugged my shoulder and waved my elbow to identify that my hands were already behind my back. He said it two more times and I did the same thing, identifying that my hands were already behind my back and then they tased me for like 15 seconds.”
When asked if the officers warned him that they were going to use a stun gun him, Kinsey said he did not think so, but could not recall.
“I just remember them saying “put your hands behind your back” and I wiggled my elbows and the next thing I know, out of the peripheral of my eye, I saw him pull out this object, I thought it was a gun, and tase me.”
Kinsey told ConnectLocal that he had never made any motion to reach for the weapon on his hip and that officers had removed his gun immediately, and he was no longer armed at the time the Taser was utilized.
“I had a pistol on me but they took it off me before I even hit the ground,” he said. “When the police snatched me off the motorcycle before my body even hit the ground, the gun was off my waist and the police snatched it off. Even when they said freeze (while he was still on the motorcycle), I did not move at all.”
Priors and delayed filing
According to Georgia Code Title 16, Crimes and Offenses § 16-11-126, “Any person who is not prohibited by law from possessing a handgun or long gun may have or carry on his or her person a weapon or long gun on his or her property or inside his or her home, motor vehicle, or place of business without a valid weapons carry license.”
No firearm-related charges were included in the grand jury indictments against Kinsey.
Kinsey stated that, although he had been arrested in the past for minor infractions, including drug-related charges, he has never been arrested for resisting arrest, nor for any violent crime. A database search conducted by ConnectLocal revealed no Georgia State Department of Corrections incarceration record for Kinsey.
In addition to Franklin County Sheriff Stevie Thomas and The County of Franklin, Georgia, three deputies were listed as defendants in the civil rights violation suit filed by Kinsey – Deputy Brenton McCurry, Deputy Jason Roach, and Deputy Nick Fowler. Kinsey said he was not sure how many officers were physically restraining him when the Taser was used but said he thought there were up to 10 officers present on the scene.
“I saw at least seven cop cars there. Were they all tackling me? I don’t know. I can’t recall but it was at least seven cop cars there, maybe ten,” he said.
Kinsey said he did not request medical attention following the incident.
“From my understanding of the police procedure, they were suppose to make sure I was medically seen after they tased me,” he stated.
Although the incident occurred in April of 2018, Kinsey filed the civil rights lawsuit on March 30. Kinsey said he had told the attorney he retained to represent him in the charges against him that he wanted to pursue the civil rights suit against the FCSO, but the attorney continued to tell him he could file those charges at any time, but it was better to deal with the charges against himself, first. Kinsey said it wasn’t until he began looking for another attorney in March of this year that he was told the statute of limitations on filing the civil rights violation lawsuit would expire in early April, at which time he formally filed the lawsuit in the Athens District Court.
Following his arrest on April 3, 2018, Kinsey said he was booked into the Franklin County Jail, where he spent three days before bonding out. He said that he has been to court several times on the charges since then, but every time, the case is continued and court officials “just tell me to go home.”
No future court date has been set in the state’s case against Kinsey, as is the case with a majority of cases in Georgia during the COVID-19 response.
Kinsey said he has been pulled over several times since the arrest but has not been arrested, cited, or charged with any further crimes since the April 3, 2018 arrest.
“I’ve been pulled over maybe eight times (since the April 3, 2018 arrest) but got no ticket, no arrest, no nothing,” he said. “It’s kind of irritating getting pulled over and having to allow people to search my vehicle and stuff,” he said, acknowledging that it is the state’s right to do so, due to his being released on bond.
Defendants respond
On May 4, the defendants in Kinsey’s civil rights violation lawsuit filed an official “answer” to the charges levied by Kinsey. The document states the defendants’ “first defense” as “Plaintiff’s Complaint, and each and every paragraph set forth therein fails to state or set forth claims against Defendants upon which relief may be granted.”
The defendants further deny all of the allegations set forth in Kinsey’s lawsuit, including his narrative of the incident. Kinsey’s description of the incident included in his lawsuit matches with the statement made by Kinsey to ConnectLocal.
“Defendants deny that Plaintiff’s civil rights were violated in any manner at any time relevant hereto while Plaintiff was in Franklin County, Georgia,” the Answer filed by the attorney for the defendant’s states.
In an effort to obtain the FCSO accounting of the arrest and any statement regarding Kinsey’s lawsuit, ConnectLocal contacted Sheriff Thomas. After speaking by phone on several occasions with Thomas and scheduling two separate telephone interviews with him that the sheriff failed to be available for at the scheduled time, ConnectLocal, at 1:30 p.m. on June 1, submitted an open records request to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office for information related to the arrest. The request was copied to the Franklin County Attorney, Dale R. “Bubba” Samuels.
As of noon, June 7, no response has been provided by the Franklin County Sheriff’s office and several phone calls to Sheriff Frankie Thomas have not been returned.
ConnectLocal spoke with attorney Samuels on Thursday, June 3. Samuels stated that he did not handle open records requests for the sheriff’s office but after receiving a copy of the one emailed on June 1, he emailed Thomas offering his assistance in fulfilling it. He has not heard back from him.
