Motorhome Diaries crew filing suit against JCSD

By David Owens, newseditor@laurelleadercall.com

Attorneys for the Motorhome Diaries trio have mailed an intent to sue letter to the Jones County Sheriff’s Department and the Mississippi Highway Patrol stemming from their May 2009 arrest.

Pete Eyre, Adam Mueller and Jason Talley were traveling through Jones County on I-59 North on May 14 when they were stopped by Jones County deputies.

In Laurel Justice Court in September, deputy James Atkins testified that he pulled the group’s RV over because he could not read the temporary tag. He said the three were later arrested because they were disruptive and didn’t obey his commands when they were asked to show identification. The three were found guilty of their respective charges. Their bond payments were enough to cover the fines on their charges and no jail time was required.

According to a letter from Jackson-based attorney Michael Cory, the agencies are being sued “for the unlawful conduct of their law enforcement officers who were acting within the scope of their employment in reckless disregard of the safety and well-being of the claimants and the reckless destruction of their property. None of the claimants were at the time of the event described below engaged in criminal conduct.”

Jones County Sheriff Alex Hodge, deputies James Atkins, Abraham McKenzie, Carrol Windham, State Trooper Chris Walker, Highway Patrol Director Michael Barthay, Public Safety Commissioner Stephen B. Simpson and Chancery Clerk Larry Ishee are all listed in the lawsuit.

The suit seeks more than $250,000 in general damages stemming from the arrest.

It also claims that on July 23, following the Jones County incident, Eyre and Talley were detained by the Canadian Border Service Agency when trying to enter the country through the Vermont border.

Cory states in the letter that the two were denied entry into Canada due to “false reporting of a ‘gun’ charge on Eyre’s record stemming from the Jones County events.

“The false information generated by the unlawful conduct of the Jones County Sheriff’s Department and the Mississippi Highway Patrol has resulted in a severe and unwarranted restriction upon the claimants’’ ability to travel internationally,” the letter states.

Cory claims that the group, traveling in connection with the documentary project “The Motorhome Diaries: Searching for Freedom in America,” had traveled through numerous states and counties in Mississippi without incident.

The letter states that when Atkins pulled over the RV, he was able to see and read the vehicle’s New Hampshire tag and “conclude that there was no violation of Mississippi law.”

“However, instead of immediately allowing the vehicle to continue on its way, Atkins approached the front passenger side of the motor home,” the letter continues.

According to the letter, Atkins ordered Eyre to exit the vehicle and bring his driver’s license. The deputy then told Eyre that he had stopped the motor home because of its license tag.

“Ignoring the obvious fact that the motor home was from out of state, Atkins told Eyre that ‘Mississippi doesn’t offer paper tags,’” the letter states. “Atkins otherwise displayed little interest in the motor home’s license tag – the ostensible justification for the traffic stop.”

Cory wrote that within five minutes of the stop, Atkins asked all three men to exit the vehicle and stand in designated areas separate from one another.

The letter states that Atkins continued to ask unrelated questions “without a factual basis to support a reasonable belief that any of the three persons he was detaining were engaged in unlawful activity.”

Mueller, who had been recording the incident, was the first handcuffed after deputy sheriff Abraham McKenzie arrived on scene, Cory stated.

According to the letter, McKenzie “immediately and aggressively approached Mueller and ordered him to stop filming. McKenzie grabbed the camera from Mueller, and assisted by Atkins, forcibly handcuffed him and placed him under arrest for disorderly conduct. Atkins took possession and control of Mueller’s camera and thereby assumed responsibility for preserving it and the recordings it contained.”

Cory countered Atkins’ claim in court that he thought the camera could have been a disguised firearm.

“Assuming charitably the sincerity of this concern, any perceived danger disappeared once the deputies seized possession of the camera,” he said. “Clearly the camera was not a weapon. The officers faced no threat other than having their public activities recorded as evidence.

“Their continued lawless and reckless conducting in interfering with Mueller’s right to record police activity on a public right of way; their arrest of Mueller for a nonexistent offense; and the willful destruction of exculpatory evidence by later erasing the footage filmed by Mueller, reveals the officers’’ awareness of the illegality of their conduct and reveals a reckless indifference to the constitutional rights of those subjected to their power,” he continued.

Cory stated that the officers’ “abuse of their lawful authority was the direct and proximate cause of all that followed. Any ‘breach of the peace’ that may have occurred during this event was the result of police misconduct and not attributable to the claimants whose conduct was lawful and constitutionally protect.”

Cory said no law in Mississippi prohibits the film of law enforcement activities in public places, noting that would violate the First Amendment.

Later during the stop, Atkins asked Eyre whether there was anything he should “know about” inside the motor home, the letter states. When Eyre asserted his constitutional right to refuse consent to a search of the motor home, they were further detained until the arrival of a drug-sniffing dog.

According to the letter, Talley “who had remained passively at the front of the motor home” was approached by Atkins and supervising deputy sheriff Sgt. Carrol Windham.

When Talley declined to answer questions about travel plans, Atkins demanded he produce identification which he also refused per his “constitutional right,” the letter states.

“In reckless disregard of statutory and constitutional limitations upon his police powers, Atkins falsely told Talley that there was a Mississippi law that required Talley to produce a personal ID upon the demand of a police officer,” Cory writes. “When Talley continued to assert his well-establish constitutional right to refuse... Atkins and Windham ordered him to turn around and to place his hands on the motor home.”

When Talley refused that request, Windham “doused him with pepper spray, grabbed him in a chokehold and tackled him to the ground,” the letter states. “Atkins and Windham forced Talley into handcuffs and falsely arrested him for resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.”

Cory calls the arrest of Talley and force employed “illegal, unreasonable, excessive and in reckless disregard of his safety and well being and his rights as a citizen of the United States lawfully engaged in interstate travel.”

Cory writes that despite many requests for water to wash out his eyes, “deputy sheriffs recklessly and in conscious disregard for his safety and well-being refused to provide any relief until he was booked into the county jail – approximately two hours after being sprayed.”

The letter states that Eyre, despite being fully cooperative, was then placed in handcuffs by Windham. “The length of the detention plus the handcuffing of Eyre was the functional equivalent of a full-blown arrest without probable cause,” it states.

Cory writes that a State Trooper Chris Walker and a drug dog proved unsuccessful other than a “single, unopened bottled of alleged beer” in the motor home’s refrigerator.

“Atkins admitted in sworn testimony during the Justice Court trial that he did not examine the label on the bottle, could not name the brand, and could not say whether the suspected beverage had any alcoholic content,” he continued. “The physical evidence was not preserved. This became the basis for the charge against Eyre: possession of beer in a “dry” portion of Jones County.”

Cory states that when the motor home was towed, officers “recklessly ignored impound and inventory procedures... resulting in recklessly inflicted damage to the interior of the motor home and to the claimants’ property.”

The letter continues that Mueller’s video camera as well as Eyre’s two firearms, which had been previously secured in a locked gun case (disassembled and separate from any ammunition), were left in plain view. The footage was also erased.

Shuanita Weathersby, Jones County Sheriff’s Department public relations officer, said Hodge had “no comment in regards to this case.”

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