Morven Police Officer Mark Melton is shown in this file photo. He was recently cleared of any wrongdoing in a lawsuit against his former employer, the Lee County Sheriff's Office.
Officer Mark Melton was named a defendant by Steven Wayne Thomas in Melton's previous capacity as a Lee County Sheriff's deputy. Wayne filed the suit Feb. 9 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
The suit named Melton, 10 other deputies, 15 John Does, the North Carolina Department of Corrections, the Lee County Sheriff's Department, Lee County and defendants yet to be identified as defendants. The motion to dismiss was granted as Melton and the other deputies were employees of the Lee County Sheriff's Office, which was already named in the suit.
Thomas alleged that on April 27, 2009, officers used excessive force against him in his arrest.
Thomas was working with chemicals in a tobacco field when he became "disoriented," according to a blog post from Lee County Sheriff Tracy Carter on Feb. 12. (Carter maintains a blog for his office at http://tracycarter.blogspot.com.)
Thomas had a friend drive him to the hospital but got out of the car and began damaging a fence at a residence. The homeowner called law enforcement.
In the course of his arrest, Thomas alleged he received a broken jaw, and was pepper sprayed and tasered 11 times.
“The Lee County Sheriff’s Department acted recklessly and clearly used excessive force on Thomas, a lifelong Lee County resident with no criminal history,” said Kieran Shanahan, an attorney with Shanahan Law Group in Raleigh, in the blog post. “My client and I are both pro-law enforcement, but this is a clear case of law enforcement going too far.”
Carter said in the post Thomas shoved a deputy and later spat on two deputies. He also claims Thomas was hitting himself in the head with a brick and admitted he had used cocaine earlier that day.
The post also quotes the suit as saying "a toxicology test at Central Carolina Hospital reportedly showed no evidence of drug use on Thomas’ part."
Melton began working for the town of Morven on April 20.
"All I was was a person blocking the traffic," Melton said. He claims he did not participate in the arrest and is "not sure why my name came up."
He also interviewed the person whose fence was damaged.
"I did not [see anything happen that day]," he said.
Melton said he did not know about the lawsuit before he was hired by the town. He claimed he was served papers later.
"[The town council] found out the same time I did," he said.
Councilman Theodore Carr said he did not know about the lawsuit before Melton was hired. Other members of the town council, including Mayor Carolyn Solomon, could not be reached for comment.
"I think maybe he knew that it was coming," Morven Police Chief Alex Campbell said. Campbell said he found out about the lawsuit by finding some paperwork on a table. He then asked Melton about it.
Melton denied this happened.
Thomas seeks $3 million in compensatory damages and unspecified punitive damages.
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