Lawsuits filed against Saltville Police Department

It was 11:57 p.m. on New Years Day 2009 when a young man in a Mustang rounded a curve near his parents’ house on Campbell Drive in Saltville. Eric Jackson was on his way home and driving too fast. How fast remains in debate – Saltville Police Officer Randall Brickey, who stopped Jackson alleging 97 mph in a 55 mph zone, later testified that he did not lock his radar.

The next half hour, which involved half a dozen officers from three jurisdictions arresting an entire family in their driveway, was documented in a police dashboard-cam video that eventually “shocked” a judge and became Exhibit A in twin $10 million lawsuits against a Saltville police officer.

On that January night, Eric Jackson turned a corner and pulled into his parents’ driveway, with Brickey’s cruiser just behind. They got out of their cars.

Brickey told Jackson he was “doing 97.”

“I don’t think it was that fast,” Eric Jackson replied.

As Brickey took Jackson’s license to his patrol car, the young man walked up the porch steps to meet his father, Larry Jackson, who owns an embroidery shop a few miles away in Chilhowie. Together, the two Jacksons went to Brickey’s cruiser.

“He wasn’t going 97 mph,” Larry Jackson said.

“You can either go back into the house, or I can arrest you,” Brickey replied.

“Well, I’ll have, I’ll be –” Larry Jackson sputtered.

“You’re under arrest, you’re under arrest,” Brickey said. Larry Jackson ran toward his house.

“Come here right now. Come here, you’re under arrest.”

“For what?” the father asked.

“You’re under arrest for obstructing the justice,” Brickey replied.

In the lawsuit filed later in U.S. District Court in Abingdon, Larry Jackson’s attorney, Richard F. Hawkins III, detailed the ensuing events under the heading: “Things go from bad to worse: Officer Brickey’s unlawful arrest sets off a chain of escalating events that results in Larry Christopher Jackson getting maced and the unlawful arrest of the entire Jackson family.”

Larry Jackson’s two sons, Eric and Larry Christopher, still captured by the dashboard camera, began mocking and cursing Brickey. They call him a “big joke” and a “joke of a police officer out here from Saltville.”

Brickey tells the brothers that he’ll arrest them, too.

The three men wander out of view of the camera, then a stream of liquid shoots across the lower left-hand corner. Brickey maced Larry Christopher Jackson.

“You just sprayed me for nothing, you (expletive),” he shouted.

“You’re going to jail, too,” Brickey said. “You’re under arrest.”

But Larry Christopher Jackson wasn’t arrested yet – he made his way back to the front door of the house, where his mother was waiting.

Meanwhile, Eric Jackson chatted with his father, now handcuffed in the back of the patrol car. Larry Jackson told his son to call the State Police and his lawyer.

“Go up there and have a seat in your car or you’re going,” Brickey said.

Eric Jackson asked why he couldn’t remain where he was.

“You’re going with us, you’re under arrest,” Brickey said.

“I’m waiting for my, I’m waiting for my ticket,” Eric Jackson said.

“You’re under, you’re under arrest.”

So Eric Jackson joined his father in the back seat of Brickey’s cruiser.

“Gonna be a helluva lawsuit,” Larry Jackson said in greeting.

Brickey called for backup to help “get” Larry Christopher Jackson, still inside the house with his mother.

“Bring a set of cuffs,” Brickey said. “I done maced that (expletive) once.”

More officers arrived – at least six of them – from the Saltville Police Department, the Smyth County Sheriff’s Office and the Chilhowie Police Department. Saltville Chief Barry “Steve” Surber was among them.

Shirley Jackson, the boys’ mother and Larry’s wife, was watching through the storm door with Larry Christopher Jackson at her side. Brickey mounted the porch.

“You need to go on,” she said to Brickey, cracking the door open a half foot.

He told her that he might take her to jail, too.

“Oh, (expletive), get a life,” she said.

Brickey pounced, sticking his hand inside in an apparent attempt to grab her son.

Shirley Jackson shrieked and slammed the door.

“You’re going, you’re going, and you’ll go, too,” Brickey hollered.

He went back to the driveway and rounded up the half dozen officers waiting there.

“You see that one mother (expletive) standing on the porch up there?” Brickey asked them. “He’s under arrest. I done maced him once, but he got back in the house on me. He’s going with ‘em. And the lady can go with them, too.”

Together, all of the officers ascended the porch steps. Larry Christopher Jackson gave himself up in a swirl of cursing and name calling. He was charged with obstruction of justice and escaping custody.

The officers reconvened in the driveway.

“Who’s the woman? Does she need to go?” one asked.

“I don’t know,” Brickey said. “She throwed the door shut on me as I reached in there to grab him.”

“That’s obstruction of justice,” an officer determined.

“Yeah, buddy, go get her,” another agreed.

“Let’s go get her,” Brickey said.

They scaled the porch steps and informed Shirley Jackson that she was under arrest.

“I haven’t left my house,” she said.

“Come on,” Brickey replied.

“No, I’ve not left my house,” she said. “I’m not going.”

They said they’d get a warrant; she said they should.

“How did I obstruct justice?” she asked.

“When I reached in to grab him there, you jerked the door shut on me,” Brickey told her.

“Yes, I jerked the door shut, ‘cause you scared me.”

“That’s obstruction, that’s obstruction of justice.”

“Oh, please,” she said.

“You can either go, or we’ll come back and drag you out of here, whichever one you want,” Brickey said.

Shirley Jackson agreed to go. She was charged with obstruction of justice and felony assault on a police officer – Brickey’s arm was inside the storm door when she slammed it shut.

The town of Saltville later recognized Brickey’s work that night with a letter of commendation, signed by Edward T. Asbury Jr., the late assistant town manager, and endorsed by Surber, the chief of police.

“It is my opinion that your performance of duty during the incident was courageous and demonstrated an outstanding ability to improvise, adapt and overcome odds that were dangerously stacked against you,” Asbury wrote. “I commend you for your professionalism, attention to details, and determination to defuse a situation that possibly could have produced tragic consequences.”

Six months later, the Jacksons appeared before Judge Sage B. Johnson in Smyth County General District Court. He dismissed the obstruction of justice charge against Shirley Jackson, but certified the assault on a police officer felony to the grand jury. Johnson dismissed the escaping custody charge against Larry Christopher Jackson, but found him, his father and his brother all guilty of obstruction of justice.

“It was a five minute process of issuing a summons for a speeding ticket that turned into a 30-minute fiasco. And there’s just no sense for it. None whatsoever,” Johnson said. “If you don’t think your son’s guilty of speeding, that’s what I’m here for. … Obviously, nobody ever agrees with everyone all the time. But there is a method to resolving disputes, and what I saw on that video is not the method.”

The Jackson men were each sentenced to 180 days in jail, with 150 days suspended, and fined $500.

They appealed to the Smyth County Circuit Court.

No transcript exists for the Sept. 25, 2009, hearing before Judge Isaac St. Clair Freeman. But 10 days later, Smyth County Commonwealth’s Attorney Roy F. Evans Jr. filed a motion for Judge Freeman to recuse himself. Evans wrote that Freeman stopped by his office and, despite the commonwealth’s objections to the judge speaking without the defense present, said he had “gotten caught up in the emotions of the case,” Evans wrote.

“During the Sept. 25, 2009, hearing, Judge Freeman remarked during the commonwealth’s argument that he was ‘shocked’ by the actions of the officer,” Evans wrote.

He continued: “It is respectfully submitted that Your Honor’s criticism of the officers’ professionalism and the Court’s admitted emotional interest in the case is evidence that this Court cannot limit its decisions to the evidence presented at trial, cannot judge this case impartially and is reason to designate another judge to hear this case.”

Freeman declined to comment, citing a professional inability to talk about specific cases.

Two days later, on Oct. 7, 2009, the commonwealth’s attorney’s office petitioned the judge to dismiss the charges against Larry and Shirley Jackson. The same day, Eric Jackson pleaded guilty to reckless driving and was fined $1,200.

Evans said an assistant who no longer works in his office handled the case and he does not recall the specifics of the dismissal. The assistant said she was not authorized to speak on the matter.

A year-and-a-half earlier, another case began a similar detour through the Smyth County criminal justice system – an arrest by Officer Brickey for offenses against police, followed by a conviction in the lower court then a dismissal in the higher one.

Trespasses

Jane Cruey’s teenage son got into trouble on an afternoon in June 2007, so she went to the Saltville Police Department and asked to talk to the chief. Her other son, 16 years old at the time, went along and took his girlfriend.

According to court documents written by Officer Randall Brickey, Cruey came to complain.

“It became a heated discussion and the chief asked her to leave the police department,” Brickey wrote. “Jane continued to argue with the chief and make threats towards him. She was asked to leave several times, she would start to leave and stop and argue some more until she was placed under arrest.”

Cruey, 53 years old and barely 130 pounds, tells a different version of events.

“This same stuff happened with the Jackson family,” Cruey said. “They lied on them and they plainly lied on me.”

She never raised her voice, she said. The chief was standing over her, screaming. She told him she needed help; that her son needed counseling and she didn’t know what to do.

The chief kept shouting, she said.

“He was trying to provoke me and I knew it,” Cruey said.

Her 16-year-old son was standing at the door and overheard everything, she said. He told her to come along; they weren’t getting anywhere.

Surber said they were trespassing.

“And I thought, trespassing, why would I go to a police station to get in trouble?” Cruey said.

As she and her son walked down the hall, she recalls saying she’d have to hire a lawyer.

Surber, she said, shouted “Don’t threaten me with lawyers! I’ve been threatened with lawyers before!”

They kept walking, she said. She knew someone was behind her but she didn’t look back.

They got outside; she heard chanting from the doorway: “arrest her, arrest her.”

“Arrest that (expletive),” she said an officer called out.

“We’re gonna arrest you,” said the officer at her back.

Five feet from her car, she turned around and there stood Brickey, Cruey said.

He put her in handcuffs and took her to the magistrate’s office in Marion. She was charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct.

Her son and his girlfriend were left behind, she said. They went to a nearby store to call for a ride.

“What kind of example does that set for my child? That’s what upsets me,” she said. “My son can’t stand cops now because of what happened over there. The whole thing was totally out of control.”

Three months later, General District Court Judge Sage B. Johnson dismissed the disorderly conduct charge, but found her guilty of trespassing. She was fined $100 and sentenced to 10 days in jail, all suspended.

Cruey, like the Jacksons, appealed Johnson’s ruling. And again, Smyth County Circuit Court Judge Isaac Freeman dismissed the charges against her.

“I’ve never been in trouble in my whole life. I go to church. I try to live a good life,” Cruey said. “I went there that day out of concern for my son and they took me to jail. I was fingerprinted and my picture was taken. What are people going to think?”

She wanted to file a lawsuit, but she couldn’t find a local attorney willing to represent her, she said. She’s spoken to Hawkins, the Jacksons’ attorney, and is considering pursuing similar action.

“They need to clean house,” Cruey said of the Police Department. “These guys, they need to either go back and do some serious training or they just need to go.”

House of cards?

On Oct. 5, 2010, Larry Jackson filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court naming Saltville Police Officer Randall Brickey, Saltville Police Chief Steve Surber and the town of Saltville as defendants. He listed seven counts – including false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and assault and battery – and asked for $10.35 million.

Chief Surber resigned.

Another officer, Jamey Puckett, was arraigned in Smyth County Circuit Court on a felony charge of misusing a town-issued cell phone.

The Police, Fire and Rescue Committee pledged to help “bring the police department back to responsibility,” according to Town Council meeting minutes.

The town’s attorney, Abingdon-based Cameron S. Bell, filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. The motion cited, among other things, that because Jackson claims his constitutional rights were violated – his Fourth Amendment protection from unreasonable search and seizure – he must prove that the arrest was an illegal one.

“Jackson made no attempt to be respectful but rather immediately began questioning Officer Brickey’s authority,” the motion reads. “There is no question that Officer Brickey was alone that night with two males who had just emerged from their home. Officer Brickey had all the reason to believe that his safety was at issue.”

Bell contended that officers, so long as they act within reason, are immune from civil liability. Nor can the town or Surber be considered accountable, the motion argued. In order for a supervisor to be liable for the actions of their underlings, they must prove a “continued inaction in the face of documented widespread abuses.” A single incident does not rise to the level of malicious indifference, he said.

Jackson’s suit disagreed: It lists several rumored trespasses committed by Saltville Police officers – one officer reportedly driving on a suspended license, another convicted on drugs charges and another indicted for misusing public assets – then concluded the department had “an institution-wide failure to train its officers properly about the rule of law and the Constitutional rights of U.S. citizens…”

On Friday, U.S. District Judge James P. Jones dismissed the claims against the town and the chief, citing similar reasoning as their motion to dismiss, but determined that those against Brickey can go on to a jury trial, set for May.

Obstruction of justice, Jones wrote, requires one to actually “hinder or obstruct” a police officer from performing his duties.

“Virginia courts have consistently held that peaceful verbal criticism of a police officer does not alone constitute the type of direct action required by the statute,” he found.

Jones, from what he saw in the video, found no probable cause for Jackson’s arrest.

“The time between Officer Brickey’s order to return to the house and Jackson’s arrest was a matter of seconds,” he wrote. “Although Jackson did not immediately and silently return to his home at Officer Brickey’s directive, Jackson did attempt to retreat up the driveway as soon as Officer Brickey exited his vehicle and declared Jackson under arrest. What the defendants deem Jackson’s continued defiance consisted – at least on this record – of only a short, confused matter.”

The town and Police Department referred questions about the lawsuit to their attorney. Bell declined to comment on the pending litigation.

In January, Shirley Jackson filed a similar lawsuit.

Hawkins, their attorney, said that at least two others have contacted him about suing the town for the actions of its police officers. Much will depend, he said, on the outcome of the Jacksons’ suits.

Hawkins said he is “cautiously optimistic.”

“This could be a ‘Dukes of Hazzard’ movie,” he said. “Except that it’s real.”

Staff writer Michael L. Owens contributed to this report.

cgalofaro@bristolnews.com
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