Hall County settled with a Flowery Branch woman for $90,000 over a lawsuit she filed related to her arrest two years ago.
Patricia Carder filed the lawsuit in 2022 against the Hall County Sheriff’s Office, alleging improprieties in her arrest against Sgt. Kenneth Phillips and Deputy Robert Waters.
While the county agreed to a $90,000 settlement in the case, the county government did not acknowledge any wrongdoing.
Sheriff not pleased with how case was handled
Hall County Sheriff Gerald Couch released a statement on April 2 on Facebook, saying he was not consulted by county attorneys before the settlement. In the Facebook post, Couch stated that the settlement was reached without an opportunity to defend his deputies in court.
“My understanding is the county attorneys felt a settlement would be more financially expedient, rather than allowing a jury to hear the accusations against our deputies. However, a settlement for any amount can give the inference of unlawful actions or deeds by our deputies, which is not the case in this incident.”
Family dispute led to arrest
According to information released by the sheriff’s office, law enforcement was called to Carder’s home on Sept. 26, 2021, after she kicked her son out the night before. He had returned with a family member to get his possessions.
Body camera footage, presented to U.S. District Judge Steve Jones, shows Carder refusing to open her door for the deputies. She stated that she had a right to kick her son out of her house.
When Carder opens the door, she tells Phillips and Waters she has COVID-19.
In the footage, she can be heard saying, “I’ve got COVID. I hope I get you infected.”
One of the deputies then grabs Carder, pulls her onto the porch, and arrests her for obstruction of an officer.
11 counts
Sheriff Couch said in his statement, “At least during my tenure, it has always been, without exception, the practice of Hall County Government attorneys to consult with me on any civil cases that involve Sheriff’s Office personnel, but that was not the case in this matter.”
The civil lawsuit initially included 11 separate counts, including false imprisonment, malicious arrest, malicious prosecution, battery, and trespass. However, the federal court found that 10 of those counts were unfounded.
The count that remained was an unlawful entry in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Judge Jones determined that the video footage was inconclusive as to whether the officer had entered Carder’s house.
Judge Jones cited “the angle of Defendant Phillips’s camera and a slight visual distortion, with the position of Defendant Phillips’s hand and Plaintiff’s upper body in relation to the door threshold.”
Ambiguities
According to the claims of the lawsuit, Carder was still standing inside her home when the officer grabbed her.
“The court determined ‘ambiguities’ in the body camera footage were enough for a jury to determine the threshold issue. Ultimately, the sheriff’s office was not allowed to present the deputies’ side of the case in court as the county attorney made an arbitrary decision to settle,” Couch complained.
The Sheriff indicated in his statement that the county attorney has fully acknowledged his “lack of judgment” in not including Couch in the decision-making process. Now Habersham reached out to county attorney Bill Linkous seeking his explanation for why the county settled and his response to Sheriff Couch’s claims.
Linkous simply responded, “No comment.”
The sheriff acknowledged that there may be times when settling a civil matter is the best course of action. “I don’t believe that was appropriate for this case,” he said.
“Going forward, the county attorney knows to consult me before settling any civil actions involving sheriff’s office personnel,” Sheriff Couch said, adding that the sheriff’s office would use this incident and its outcome as a learning opportunity.
