PDF: Murray’s complaint against Red Bank
Red Bank faces another $1.5 million lawsuit, this time over a DUI arrest one of its officers made outside the city limits.
John Anthony Murray is the third person in the last six weeks to sue Red Bank for $1.5 million for “mental anguish” damages.
In the lawsuit filed Monday, Murray, 59, also names Hamilton County government, former Red Bank police chief Larry Sneed, Red Bank Police Officer Tammie Delashmitt and Hamilton County Sheriff’s Deputy Jim Delashmitt as defendants.
“They treated me like a piece of trash,” Murray said Monday of the Red Bank Police Department. “They didn’t offer me nothing.”
Murray said he spent about eight hours inside the city’s holding cell before a 10-day stay in Hamilton County Jail.
“At no time did any member of the city or the county offer or allow plaintiff any food, water, toilet breaks or telephone calls while they held him in the city holding cell and (tried) to figure out how to justify (his) arrest,” the lawsuit says.
After Tammie Delashmitt noticed Murray’s erratic steering near Soddy-Daisy – miles outside Red Bank’s jurisdiction – she pulled him over and called her sheriff’s deputy husband for assistance.
But Jim Delashmitt never received clearance for a county arrest after he performed field sobriety tests on Murray, the complaint states, so Tammie Delashmitt regained control of the traffic stop.
She took Murray to the Red Bank police station and created a police report, claiming she conducted the DUI investigation. Two Red Bank officers “saw what (Tammie Delashmitt) was doing and told her to stop,” according to the lawsuit.
Several magistrates and supervisors declined to endorse an arrest warrant for Murray before both Delashmitts “deleted (and) altered” county and city police records to justify the arrest and prosecution, the complaint states. The Red Bank report “was deleted from the police report database,” the complaint states.
Eventually, Red Bank City Judge Johnny Houston recommended a “citizen’s arrest” to the officers because jurisdiction was undetermined, according to the complaint.
Jim Delashmitt filed a corroborating county report, which says Murray admitted to “drinking many beers” and having an open container inside his white 1988 Ford Econoline van as he navigated the highway.
The lawsuit blames Sneed for ignoring the alleged record-tampering besides giving a “verbal reprimand” to Tammie Delashmitt.
Interim Police Chief Dan Knight defended his staff venturing outside jurisdiction, but did not comment on how records were handled.
“You can’t just let somebody drive around intoxicated,” he said. “It endangers the lives of other people and you have to act on it.”
Red Bank City Attorney Arnold Stulce was unavailable for comment Monday.
In July, Sneed sued the city and four officials alleging retaliatory discharge and political conspiracy after he was fired.
On Aug. 5, Officer Bradley Hanon sued Red Bank for “defamation, humiliation and mental anguish” after he said he exposed several incidents of alleged improper police work, including the Murray incident.
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