Police in Kentucky county face second federal lawsuit alleging excessive force

Two Kentucky sheriff’s deputies took part in throwing a man to the ground without cause and shocking him several times with a Taser after he was handcuffed, the man has alleged in a federal lawsuit.

One of the deputies improperly charged the man, Robert L. Coker, with resisting arrest in an effort to cover the misconduct and discourage him from suing, the complaint alleges.

A judge dismissed the criminal charge against Coker in Whitley County.

Testimony in that case “demonstrated that the deputies have an alarming ignorance of the rights of the citizens they are sworn to protect, have a frighteningly expansive view of their power to use force against and arrest citizens who have not engaged in any criminal conduct, and will go to great lengths to avoid any accountability for their own misconduct,” Coker’s attorneys said in the lawsuit.

The defendants in the complaint are Whitley County, Sheriff Todd Shelley and deputies Chad Estep and James Coffey.

The claims in the lawsuit include that the deputies violated Coker’s rights and used excessive force, and that Shelley failed to properly train and oversee them.

Shelley said he could not comment on Coker’s lawsuit. An attorney representing the sheriff’s office in another case did not respond to a request for comment.

It is the second federal lawsuit in as many months alleging excessive force by Estep and a failure by the sheriff to supervise him.

Before the incident involving Coker, there had been numerous complaints to the sheirff’s office and Shelley about alleged excessive force and abuse of power by Estep, and at least one county official had demanded that Estep be fired, Coker’s lawsuit claims.

The incident at issue in the lawsuit happened Jan. 30, 2021 when Estep and Coffey went to investigate a 911 call from a woman who said a man was trying to get into her house in violation of a domestic violence order.

‘Completely innocent’

When the deputies arrived, Coker, 67, was standing in the doorway of a garage next to the woman’s house, where he had been working on cars, his lawsuit says.

Estep said in a citation or court testimony that Coker walked out behind the deputies and had a metal bolt clinched in his fist, that his eyes were glassy and he refused to identify himself, and that he wouldn’t turn around so Estep could pat him down and make sure he didn’t have any weapons.

Estep said Coker started to fight him when he tried to search him, and that’s when he forced Coker to the ground, according to a court document.

Estep said he smelled paint coming from the garage and thar Coker later told him he was disoriented from working in the garage.

A special prosecutor in the case, McCreary County Attorney Austin Price, argued Estep was justified in searching Coker and had reasonable cause to arrest him.

However, Corbin attorney David O. Smith, who represented Coker, argued Coker was not violent toward deputies and that there was no justification to charge him with resisting arrest.

Estep and Coffey were given a chance to justify their actions at hearings in that case, but after their “weak efforts,” a judge dismissed the criminal charge, Coker’s federal lawsuit says.

“He was completely and entirely innocent,” said attorney Greg Belzley, who represents Coker in the lawsuit with Aaron Bentley and Smith.

Coker’s lawsuit says that when the deputies showed up next to his garage and he asked them what was going on, they told him to put his hands behind his back and that he was under arrest.

When Coker asked why, the officers immediately threw him to the concrete surface in front of the garage and handcuffed him, then stunned him with a Taser multiple times even though he was restrained and pleading with them to stop.

Only then did the deputies search the nearby house where the 911 call came from and found it was empty, according to the lawsuit.

Estep took Coker to the county jail, where they sat outside in the police car. Estep called Coker’s wife, who came got him, the lawsuit says.

Coker was bleeding and in pain, but the deputies didn’t ask about his condition or about whether he needed medical attention, and didn’t offer him any treatment, the lawsuit says.

Coker has suffered mental and physical pain and suffering, was deprived of his liberty unjustly and had to go through a prosecution that was maliciously initiated, the lawsuit argues.

The complaint seeks an unspecified amount of money to compensate Coker, as well as damages to punish the defendants and deter further wrongdoing.

Second complaint pending

In the other pending lawsuit, Whitley County resident Timothy Curnutt alleges that Estep pulled him over on July 7, 2020, and brutally beat him.

Curnutt received no medical attention until July 20, when someone found him unresponsive in the bathroom and he was taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, according to the lawsuit.

Curnutt was unable to speak and was in critical condition. A scan showed he had a large hemorrhage on his brain, and he has permanent brain damage, the lawsuit says.

Estep had not had any formal police training at the time, the lawsuit alleges. It seeks unspecified damages.

The attorney for Shelley and Estep said in a response that the two denied the allegations and raised a number of defenses, including that the officers have legal immunity and that they acted in good faith.

The officers “are privileged to use force when they are acting in self-defense to protect themselves and others from serious physical injury or death,” their response says.

Estep said in a citation in the case that he stopped Curnutt’s car because the registration had expired and a headlight was burned out, and that he saw a pipe used to smoke methamphetamine in the car.

Estep said when he searched the car, he got stuck with a syringe hidden in the seat that Curnett hadn’t told him about. He charged Curnutt, 47, with wanton endangerment of a police officer.

A grand jury indicted Curnutt on the charge. The case is pending.