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.
They asked U.S. District Judge Harold Murphy in March to ban the sheriff's office from arresting anyone on that charge ever again. They also asked the judge to award Green some money from the county.
But the county's attorneys, Ronald Womack and Steven Rodham, asked Murphy to dismiss the lawsuit and make Green pay their fees.
They said the lawsuit deals only with the 2014 arrest and there is no evidence that Green suffered as a result of it. The 2013 arrest, the one that led to his mother's death and his depression, is not a factor.
"[Green] simply alleges his fear of being arrested again should he call 911 or direct profane language at an officer," the attorneys for the county wrote. "That allegation is insufficient to satisfy the imminent injury requirements."
They also argued that Green cannot sue Sheriff Scott Chitwood because the sheriff is protected by "sovereign immunity" and acting as an "arm of the state." The arresting deputies cannot be sued because they were just doing their jobs, upholding the law and using their "discretionary authority."
Rodham and Womack said the deputies did not violate Green's constitutional rights. It's illegal in Georgia to curse on a 911 call. And because no court has struck down that law, enforcing it can't be unconstitutional.
The sponsor of the law, however, said the county is misinterpreting it.
In March, former state Rep. John Lunsford told the Times Free Press the law was not supposed to be applied in a case like Green's. Instead, he said, it was meant for frequent callers who berated 911 dispatchers, stopping the dispatchers from fielding other emergency calls.
"You've got the letter of the law and you've got the intent of the law. They never match."
Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at tjett@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6476.