The Knoxville News Sentinel has reported that and in-cruiser video of a beating, by the same officer facing a wrongful death lawsuit, was allowed as evidence to show that the accused has a propensity for excessive force.
The officer, Sgt. D.M., is shown in the video punching and kicking a suspect, with the help of one other officer, while the suspect was restrained.
D.M. is with the Blunt County Sheriff's Office and the video, taken on March 25, is of his arrest of a former detective, D.C., with the Sevierville Police Department.
D.M. is currently embroiled in a lawsuit that accuses him of excessive force and wrongful death in an incident that occurred on February 24, 2008.
The February incident, leading to the death of L.R.H. Jr., 61, allegedly was due to deputies that "panicked" when their plans of getting L.R.H. Jr. out of his home to arrest him.
His widow, J.H., filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court.
J.H. claims that police officers staged the scene for the arrest, planted a gun on L.R.H. Jr., and then washed away the blood before it could be collected as evidence.
D.M. has asked U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan to toss out the federal case. The officer alleged that the incident occurred while he was in the line of duty, thereby warranting his actions as justifiable.
Varlan did dismiss other officers named in the suit that had made the same argument - Blunt County Sheriff J.B. and Deputy L.D. - but the judge chose not to dismiss the charges against D.M.
The suit contends that it was D.M., and not J.B. or L.D., that hatched the plan to draw L.R.H. Jr. out of his home the night he died.
D.M. is appealing Varlan's ruling.
Due to the new videotape evidence, from the latest incident in March, the FBI has begun an investigation of D.M.
The videotape shows D.M. kicking and punching D.C. during his arrest. D.M. "used the butt of the shotgun to try to restrain (D.C.)" per C.G., the attorney for Blunt County.
Mike Meares, representing the D.H. family wrote, "The video is of significance with respect to county liability because, in spite of some headlight glare, it shows the sheriff of Blount County either striking the same suspect, Mr. (T.C.), with the butt of a shotgun or as Blount County's attorney reportedly views it, using 'the butt of the shotgun to hold Mr. Coulter's head down.'"
After the beating incident, D.C. pleaded guilty to charges he faced from ramming into a sheriff's cruiser. He has been placed on a three-year of probation and has since resigned from the Sevierville Police Department.
D.M. has been with the Blunt County Sheriff's Office for 10 years. After the latest incident he was suspended without pay for three days.
The special agent with the FBI in charge of looking into allegations made against D.M., Richard Lambert, said that his investigation is ongoing.
A wrongful death lawsuit, no matter what the circumstances are, requires the expertise of an experienced and qualified attorney. Click here for our directory of lawyers to contact a wrongful death lawyer near you today!