Tennessee Deputy Sued Twice In The Same Day Over A Roadside Anal Search And A Forced Baptism
from the yeah-I've-never-seen-those-words-lined-up-like-that-before-either dept
You've got to be a special kind of law enforcement officer to have two lawsuits filed against you in the same day. Hamilton County Deputy Daniel Wilkey is that kind of special. The Tennessee law enforcement officer managed to violate rights against enough people that two of them retained lawyers. This suggests Deputy Wilkey violates rights on a regular basis, but maybe not egregiously enough to merit a lawsuit in every case.
Both cases here are disturbing. And they're disturbing in very different ways. I've never read a civil rights lawsuit against an officer that included claims of a forcible religious experience, but here we are. (h/t Peter Bonilla)
The first lawsuit [PDF], filed by Shandle Riley, alleges that Deputy Wilkey followed her to a friend's house from a nearby gas station. Once he had (sort of) pulled her over, things got weird quick.
First, Deputy Wilkey claimed Riley was holding meth. To prove this, he engaged in a full body patdown. Then he ordered her to take off her bra and "shake her bra and shirt" to prove she hadn't stashed any meth there. Riley asked for a female officer to be present during this "search" but the deputy told her the law doesn't require female cops to search female citizens.
He then asked if she had anything illegal in her car. She said she had a marijuana roach stashed in a pack of cigarettes. At that point, Deputy Wilkey became verbally abusive. Then he decided to strike a deal with the alleged criminal. We'll go to the lawsuit for that because… well, it offers the driest recounting of a positively insane situation.
Wilkey then approached Plaintiff and asked her if she was "saved" and believed in Jesus Christ.
Plaintiff stated that she believed in Jesus Christ, but that she was not "saved" by her own choice.
Wilkey then told Plaintiff that God was talking to him during the vehicle search, and Wilkey felt the Lord wanted him to baptize the Plaintiff.
Wilkey further told Plaintiff that he felt "the spirit."
Um. Do what now?
These are words coming from the mouth of a sworn peace officer. And that's not the end of it. The option given to Riley was to participate in this highly-unconventional baptism presided over by an officer of the law or get thrown into the gaping maw of the criminal justice system with as much force as Deputy Wilkey could muster. If Riley agreed to a baptism, Wilkey said he would only cite her for marijuana possession and speak to the judge on her behalf. Riley complied with Wilkey's demands, which included grabbing towels from her friends house and following Wilkey's cruiser out to a nearby lake.
At the lake, Riley and Wilkey were joined by Deputy Jacob Goforth, who did nothing as Wilkey proceeded with the "baptism."
Wilkey told Plaintiff that Goforth was present because, in order for a baptism to be valid, a witness must "attest" to the ritual.
Wilkey then stripped nearly naked, with only his boxer shorts on.
Wilkey then gave Plaintiff the option to strip too, but Plaintiff declined.
Wilkey then lead Plaintiff into the near waist deep and frigid water, placed one hand on Plaintiff's back, and his other hand on Plaintiff's breasts, and completely submerged Plaintiff under the water.
Wilkey held Plaintiff under water for several moments, then with his hands still positioned on her back and breasts, raised Plaintiff from the cold water.
Plaintiff was shivering uncontrollably, and felt horribly violated.
Unfortunately for Riley, I doubt there's a case on point that will easily eliminate Wilkey's qualified immunity defense. But hopefully, the court will recognize this is batshit insane enough it doesn't need to find a case on point to find Wilkey violated her rights. To top it all off, Riley held up her end of the under-the-color-of-law bargain. Deputy Wilkey did not.
At no time did Wilkey ever [go to] court on Plaintiff's behalf and speak to the judge.
If that was the only thing Wilkey was being sued about, it would be enough to question his fitness for duty. But as you already know, this isn't the end of the accusations against the deputy.
The second lawsuit, filed in the same court on the same day, alleges Deputy Wilkey engaged in a suspicionless stop that turned into an impromptu roadside anal cavity search and the beating of a handcuffed man. And oh my god does it start with one of the dumbest things an officer has ever said to defend a pretextual stop. From the lawsuit [PDF]:
Wilkey followed Plaintiffs, and conducted a traffic stop of the Plaintiffs on the false claims of "window tint violation" and that he could smell the odor of marijuana as Wilkey followed the plaintiffs.
This assertion of Wilkey's exceptional olfactory senses is followed by a parade of brutalities inflicted on the passenger of the pulled-over vehicle at the hands of the deputy. Fortunately for the plaintiffs, this whole interaction was recorded.
Here's the lawsuit's description of those events:
Wilkey handcuffed James, and the individual Defendants took James to the front of one of their police vehicles.
Wilkey then began to grab James' genitals. When James told Wilkey that James had an untreated and large hernia and that Wilkey's actions were causing James pain, Brewer and Wilkey jerked James' arms high above his back, and slammed James face-down onto the hot engine hood, causing injury to James.
Wilkey and Brewer then beat James with fists, knees, and feet, slammed James to the ground, and continued their brutalization of James.
Wilkey and Brewer then removed James' pants and shoes, while still beating James.
Wilkey and Brewer then forced James' face back onto the hot hood of the same police vehicle and continued to jerk his arms high above his back, and beat James.
While Brewer continued to force James' face back onto the hot hood of the same police vehicle and jerk his arms high above his back Wilkey donned a set of gloves, pulled down James' underwear, and conducted an anal cavity search of James.
The lawsuit goes on to note that James suffered numerous injuries including "tearing of his anus" and an aggravation of his existing hernia. The charges brought against James (the deputies discovered drugs in his underwear) were all dropped after the dashcam video was made public.
Deputy Wilkey has been suspended, but it's the nice kind that means he'll be paid to do nothing while the Sheriff's Office decides what to do with him. It would seem obvious he's too expensive to keep around.
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Filed Under: daniel wilkey, hamilton county, tennessee
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I’m sure the police union of which Wilkey is a part believes otherwise.
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Re:
How in the holy whackadoodle dandy are they going to justify Wilkie's actions?
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'You see, he just REALLY cared about their eternal soul...'
Badly I'm sure, but given past history of what atrocities police unions have had no problem defending I'm sure they'll come up with something.
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Perfectly plausible.
Well, Wilkey confiscated marijuana earlier that day. And his behavior does not exactly suggest that he is opposed to ingesting whatever drugs he can grab a hold of. So I have little doubt that he could smell the odor of marijuana as Wilkey followed the plaintiffs. "as Wilkey followed the plaintiffs" is not a description of cause, just of time.
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Just as it was pointed out, Deputy Daniel Wilkey is batshit insane
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Re:
Possible, but I'd put higher odds on corruption than insanity.
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Re: Re:
Well, that's a reasonable bet for a priori probabilities. But the conditional probability given the facts significantly shifts the balance to batshit insane.
Bayes and all that.
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That is rape
Tearing of the anus in an undeclared anal cavity search is rape. I really hope this officer is charged and removed from the force. All previous interactions involving this officer are now suspect meaning thousand of people may have to be released from prison.
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Re: That is rape
Not when you have a badge.
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Re: Re: That is rape
Alas, confirmed correct. Even if you film it and share it with your friends.
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Saved from what?
Almost of the "saved" people I know spend a lot of time and effort helping other people. The ones that engaged in brutality because god or Jesus directed them to do so were unmedicated paranoid schizophrenics.
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Re: Saved from what?
Judging by his actions in the other suit, it would seem that by being saved Riley avoided having the deputy cavity search her on the roadside.
The Tennesee version of the Miranda warning, "You have the right to be saved by a random deputy. If you give up that right, your savior will tear your anus to show you the err of your ways. If you can not afford a baptism, one will be provided for you at the nearest water filled ditch."
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Re: Saved from what?
Actual salvation involves genuine faith; it can't be bullied into people.
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Why is this cop not being tried on criminal charges?
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Re:
Cops are above the law.
You didn't get that memo in your mail while being strip searched?
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The district attorney probably has the “blue flu”.
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Oh he is so getting a stern finger wag
Let's see, blatant violation of the first amendment paired with sexual assault, followed by more sexual assault... yeah, I figure that will get him maybe a week of paid leave and a finger shaken once, maybe twice, which I'm sure will be considered plenty of punishment.
Unfortunately for Riley, I doubt there's a case on point that will easily eliminate Wilkey's qualified immunity defense.
Indeed, I mean it's not like there's a constitutional amendment or anything that might cover what government agents can and can not do when it comes to religion...
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Time for...
The "Me Too Blue" movement...
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So did Deputy Dumbass make a finger gun when performing the anal search, escalating the whole thing to a deadly force encounter?
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Note to self, when a deputy threatens to tear you a new one, he REALLY means it.
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Re:
We need a "funny but sadly true button" more and more.
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No, the correct dept is: cops-who-belong-in-jail-while-waiting-for-space-to-open-up-in-the-cops-only-wing-of-the-local-mental -institution
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Shouldn't this article appear in "Ripley's Believe It or Not"????
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what did courts expect
When the bar for qualified immunity requires the police to do something no one else has done, cops are only going to keep trying to outdo one another for most outlandish violation of a person's rights.
Didn't anyone tell them there isn't a trophy for most rights violated?
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Re: what did courts expect
Sure there is... they get to be boss of the union & say stupid shit on tv.
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Re: what did courts expect
I get it. The more outlandish a cop is, the more immune they are.
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The only way to make this worse...
is to combine the cases into "anal baptism"...
This man is crazy. He may or may not be Christian. He may or may not have substance issues. He IS a rapist. He HAS abused his authority. He needs treatment, but he also deserves prison time after his treatment.
Good Lord. (said not ironically, while shaking my head)
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Re: The only way to make this worse...
To me he sounds like a Christian in the same sense others declare themselves to be communists.
Makes you want to pick them up, shake them and shout at them "have you even read the book?". Of course, there are actually a whole lot of books, most of them an enfuriating absurdity. But I mean the respective primary reference.
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Re: Re: The only way to make this worse...
Agreed. 1 John 2:6
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Jesus
You know, like Jesus would do.
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Best headline that I've read in months...
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Re:
Until you read the article and realize that there isn't the slightest bit of embellishment in the headline.
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Clarification Ought to be Supplied. and Passive Voice Avoided
Yes,both suits may have been filed on 31-Sep-2019 (!), but that is simply the filing date. It is probably less surprising when you observe that they are filed by the same atty, who probably used some of the same preparation for both.
Certainly it would have been reasonable to use much of the work for both suits, since the background investigation would be of the same officer and same sheriff's dept in both.
The events occurred months apart. Riley, 06-Feb-2019. Mitchell, 10-Jul-2010.
So it was not a cop having a particularly ambitious and productive day. Is is just bad cops in what appears to be a bad department.
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Violations
Deputy Wilkey has been suspended, but it's the nice kind that means he'll be paid to do nothing while the Sheriff's Office decides what to do with him.
Fire him, obviously. It's his job to enforce the law, not to violate the First Amendment and that poor unfortunate's civil rights as well as her dignity.
As for the anal search, what the hell?
America needs to sort out its demented Puritan problem, NOW.
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Wilkeys a punk!
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Who hires these dumb fucks
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Fuck 12, nothing but a bunch of bitches! How long are we gonna take this shit?
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death and taxes (but experts are working on death)
The taxpayers of Hamilton County, TN[*], are the generous people helping to feed and house these otherwise unemployables.
By doing so, they reduce the homeless population and prevent hunger. This is an example of charity, and a tax deduction is available for the property taxes which act as the funding mechanism.
[*] Chattanooga
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