A federal judge has dismissed an excessive force lawsuit against a Georgia State Patrol trooper, arguing he didn’t do much damage when he pulled a woman into a ditch during an arrest.
Kiersten Quick sued Trooper Joseph Geddie over her November 2016 arrest, when he wrestled with her and pulled her to the ground after an argument in Dade County. Geddie charged her with obstruction of an officer.
“(Quick’s) arm was not broken, as she feared, and she suffered some scrapes and bruises,” U.S. District Court Judge Harold Murphy wrote Aug. 9, in an order granting Geddie’s motion for summary judgment. “(Quick) took one prescription pain pill given to her at the hospital, and she treated the rest of her injuries with over-the-counter pain medications.”
The case began after Quick’s daughter crashed her car into a tree at New England Road and Main Avenue. When he responded, Geddie realized that the woman was driving on a suspended licence and with an expired tag. Quick drove to the scene after getting a call from her daughter and yelled “Are you (expletive) kidding me?” when she learned about the arrest. (She later said she was yelling at her daughter, not Geddie.)
Geddie yelled at Quick several times over the next couple of minutes as Quick tried to get near her daughter’s crashed car. At one point, she opened the passenger-side door. Geddie ordered her to get back. He said he was telling Quick to return near her own vehicle. Quick said she thought Geddie was merely telling her to take a few steps back.