Four Whitfield County, Ga., deputies who arrested Boyd Green last summer for using bad words on a 911 call didn’t cause Green any harm, their attorneys say.
The attorneys are asking that the federal civil lawsuit Green filed over the arrest should be dismissed.
During that 3 a.m. call in June 2014, the U.S. Marine veteran told the 911 dispatcher he wanted to see the Dalton police officer who had arrested him on a DUI charge the year before. At the time of the 2013 arrest, Green had been taking care of his immobilized mother at his Rocky Face home. He says police who booked him on the DUI charge ignored his pleas for someone to check on his sick mother. Five days after the arrest, while Green was still in jail, a friend found the mother dead on the floor of the home.
When the 911 dispatcher told Green the officer was off duty, Green used two vulgarities in reference to the officer. A short time later, four deputies showed up at his house and arrested him on a charge of using vulgar language during a 911 call. Conasauga Judicial Circuit District Attorney Bert Poston dropped the charges two months later.
Green’s lawyers from the Southern Center for Human Rights say the members of the sheriff’s office violated his constitutional rights to free speech and protection against unreasonable seizure.