Posted on 09/20/2007 4:29:27 PM PDT by decimon
BARROW COUNTY, Ga. -- A Barrow County woman says an off-duty deputy handcuffed and had her strip-searched because of a simple dispute over a power line.
“My life has never been the same since. I’m having a very hard time with it,” said Sue Worley.
A farm in Hoschton in Barrow County has been home to 60-year-old Worley all her life.
Late last year, a letter from the Georgia Transmission Corporation told her a 230 Kilovolt power line was going to go through her property. When surveyors showed up, Worley said she went down the road to talk. She said she didn’t threaten anyone, but the Barrow County deputy working with the surveyors didn’t see it that way -- the deputy called for backup.
“I saw two sheriff’s cars drive up,” said Worley. She was handcuffed, arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.
“I was in the car and I went all the way to the jail handcuffed,” she said. Worley was booked into the jail, patted down and strip searched.
“She sprayed me down with lice spray. It was so humiliating,” Worley said. “They made a criminal out of me.”
The charges were dropped, but Worley and her lawyer are suing the Georgia Transmission Company.
“It’s just pure, old-fashioned intimidation. They want people’s land and they don’t want to pay for it,” said Worley's lawyer, Don Evans. “They’re going to set their power poles wherever they want and if anybody gives them any lip, they’ll put you in jail.”
She and her lawyer said they’re suing, not just for her, but for other Georgians facing the threat of eminent domain and what they see as loss of property rights.
“I just don’t see how this could happen in a land of freedom, but we don’t have freedom anymore because people can just do anything they want to,” said Worley.
Project H.O.P.E. -- Homeowners Opposing Power Line Encroachment -- said Worley's case shows the need for the governor and legislature to draw stronger citizen-friendly laws to prevent what it calls, "preferential treatment," for power companies.
A spokesperson for the Georgia Transmission Corporation told Channel 2 they had hired a deputy because they'd had some subtle threats from other residents in the area.
Right now, it looks like the power line will go up either late next year or in early 2009.
She's being awarded something but there's no indication of how much. And I would have no idea what would be reasonable in Barrow County, Georgia.
and it is not just the raw land. The mere take for THAT use diminishes ALL her land.
Now meter readers have a hand held electronic device and can read your meter without getting out of the truck or even getting very close. I have locked gates now and I like it!
Back in 1985? the real estate definition of "best and highest use" was that use which generated the most money;therefore under that way of thinking,no one's property is safe from confiscation ,as long as the new otenant has a plan to make more money.
We are all tenants,...think not? try skipping a property tax payment and tell them you can't afford the gov't provided fire protection,etc.
According to whom? The woman who was arrested? Is that what the arresting officers put in their report? Even if the off duty officer overreacted, the other two officers would also have to be negligent in their duties.
If she had been harassing them, and then said she would be quiet and just wanted to watch them, they have every reason to demand that she leave the area, because they don't want to come back if she starts harassing them again. The workers had every legal right to be there. The woman also has every legal right to be there as long as she respects the right of others and doesn't harass them.
And yes this happens often. The intimidation of land owners to empower the officer's second employer.
And what exactly are you basing that assumption upon?
No on both counts.
This dangerous perp was strip searched for one reason and one reason only. As punishment for questioning one of our keepers.
Haven’t you people learned? Lower your gaze, speak reverently, make no sudden moves, OR ELSE!!!
I'm in Greene County, not that it really matters for the purpose of this discussion. I did a quick search and found a report that included salary survey info from 2004.
In Ohio the average starting salary for Deputy Sheriffs was $29,868.87 in 2004. That has probably gone up about 2% a year to cover cost of living increases.
Assuming 40 hours a week for 52 weeks a year, that is $14.36 an hour. I don't know what union dues are, but since they are required to be part of the union, that needs to come out of that.
So they make about $14 an hour for a relatively dangerous job, with crappy hours, where they have to deal with the worst aspects of the public.
With an added benefit of driving their cruiser home considerably cuts the cost of living
They get to drive it to and from work. They don't get to drive it around for personal use. All it saves them is paying for gas to and from work, and none of them have a very long commute, because they have to live in the county in which they work. It isn't the big deal you make it out to be.
I said:
So you're suggesting that this off duty officer just called in the other sheriff's deputies for the fun of it? If he did he must really like being ridiculed by his co-workers for not being able to deal with an old woman.
You responded:
Your above does not take in to account that if he arrest the woman he would have to leave his off duty security job to take her away. His surveyor charges would be unprotected.
Leaving his off duty job to arrest the woman really isn't much of an option. He did the right thing in calling in other officers to deal with the issue. The reason to do that is to avoid the conflict of interest of acting as an on duty officer while being paid for doing security. Instead he called the sheriff's department, just like any other security guard could do, and let the on duty deputies come out and investigate the incident and act accordingly.
However, that doesn't seem to stop the usual suspect from screaming how there was a conflict of interest, even though the off duty officer didn't make the arrest and called in the incident just like anyone else could.
No, but I do believe that they will take their fellow deputy’s word that the woman was disorderly.
Well, if they know him, they probably have a pretty good idea if he would lie about such a thing or not. Of course there are also the workers and the woman herself that they can talk to and try and resolve the issue. However, you usually don't get hauled off to jail for disorderly conduct, unless you refuse to stop disturbing the peace. You instead get cited and have to pay a fine.
The arresting officers don't want to fill out the paperwork for an arrest report. They don't want to deal with their sergeant asking them why they had to arrest a little old lady and couldn't talk her into calming down. They had to know the sheriff wouldn't be happy considering that he is an elected official and arresting little old women on their property for disturbing the peace is going to look bad.
Even if their fellow officer tells them the woman had been creating a disturbance, and they believed them, arresting her is a rather extreme solution unless the situation itself dictated it.
However, we really don't know what happened. All we know from the article is that she says she didn't threaten anyone, which is pretty vague. You don't get to hear the deputies' side because they aren't allowed to talk about it, especially when she is threatening a lawsuit.
What I am suggesting is that harassment is often a matter of perception. The property owner did not believe that she was harassing anyone but the officer did. I believe that the officer’s perception could be unconsciously altered by his employment with the utilities.
Well, those utility workers have every right to be there, and they need to be there to do their jobs. The woman has every right to be on her property as long as she isn't interfering with the workers. However, exactly what purpose do you think she had in going over to the workers? The workers aren't going to be able to answer any questions for her, and I didn't see any allegations that they were outside of the utility right of way. She doesn't particularly need a reason to be there, but it isn't very credible to suggest that she was completely innocent in her intents and wasn't disruptive, while the evil utility workers and the evil off duty officer just had her arrested for doing nothing but watching.
I've heard people complain about intimidation. What purpose does it serve the utility workers to try and intimidate this woman? They are just there doing their jobs. You've got to make some really one sided assumptions of bad intent on the part of the utility workers, the off duty deputy, and the two on duty deputies to come to the conclusion that they were intimidating a poor woman who was doing nothing but minding her own business.
Spending time with these surveyors long enough he is going to form friendships with them.
So. It's not like the surveyors have any reason to want to falsely accuse the woman of harassment either. From the story, it also sounds like the utility hiring off duty officers to provide security was a pretty recent development.
It is likely that if he has been with these surveyors for a few months that other land owners have stopper the surveyors and asked similar questions. The surveyors after a time would start to become irritated by these questions as would the officer.
That's not exactly unreasonable on their part since the surveyors are the wrong people to be asking such questions. If they told her they were unable to help her and she kept asking and insisting, that would be harassment. They are under no obligation to stop what they are doing and try and satisfy her.
I suspect that the officer told her to leave the vicinity of the surveyors and she balked at being told to leave her own property.
Well, if she kept badgering them, then she was harassing them and disturbing the peace.
Over time the officer might get a little short tempered and confrontational. If the old woman did not back down right away he may just decide to arrest her.
That's a pretty big assumption, and it also ignores the fact that he didn't arrest here. He called the Sheriff's office and they sent out two deputies that were on duty, and they decided to arrest her.
We both are just surmising what happened because we have only the woman’s side of things. But this is my take.
Understandable. I responded with why I don't think that your "take" is very credible. It is possible that it happened that way, but it requires a number of people to act unreasonably, rather than one person to get irate and feel that they have the right to say whatever they want as long as they remain on their property, especially when they dispute that the surveyors have a right to be there.
According to the police report filed by Deputy Bush, she stood in Ms. Worley’s field and told Ms. Worley the property owner that she was not allowed to be present on her property during the surveying process. This female deputy had absolutely no authority to tell Ms. Worley that she was not able to be on or to move freely about her own property. When Ms. Worley restated her desire to remain on her property she was told by Bush that “She would see about that”. Then later after backup was call Ms. Worley’s was unlawfully arrested and her life altered for ever.
Get the facts, here is a link to the documents pertaining to Ms. Worley’s eminent domain nightmare.
Press Release: http://www.hopeofgeorgia.com/press_releases/press_release_092007.htm
Arrest Documents: http://www.hopeofgeorgia.com/?file=worley/index
These are some of the media links:
Fox Cable News Network aired a story live from the Barrow County Sheriff’s office that ran for about 6 min. long. Then there was another live story on “The Fox Report” that evening with Sheppard Smith
The story has been carried locally by WSBTV Channel 2 video: http://www.wsbtv.com/video/14162266/index.html and online: http://www.wsbtv.com/news/14161104/detail.html . Ms. Worley has been a guest on the Martha Zoller show on WDUN radio this week as well.
HOPE of Georgia is working to make further changes to eminent domain law and we need Georgia citizens help! HOPE of Georgia needs people contacting the Governor and their representatives in the legislature. HOPE does not want to stop construction, we just want to make sure people are treated fair and their rights are not violated in this state by the power utilities.
Don’t wait until they come for your land to take stand, it might be to late.
Mike Carter
Chairman
HOPE of Georgia
mike@hopeofgeorgia.com
www.hopeofgeorgia.com
Maybe: then again probably not.
I have watched sheriff’s elections for quite awhile.
If a Sheriff manages to get elected twice he is pretty much a shoe in unless some major scandal brings him down or there is a major demographic shift in the county. The sheriff in my county does not even bother to run a campaign. He has been reelected continuously since 1993. Unless a person has prominence in the community I doubt that a sheriff is going to make a fuss about an old woman’s arrest unless it gets lots of negative press. A sheriff is much more likely to defend his deputies than berate them.
Understandable. I responded with why I don't think that your "take" is very credible. It is possible that it happened that way, but it requires a number of people to act unreasonably, rather than one person to get irate and feel that they have the right to say whatever they want as long as they remain on their property, especially when they dispute that the surveyors have a right to be there.
Well in my life time I have seen a number of occasions where groups of people act unreasonably in concert. I have if fact seen occasions where in the same circumstances had any of those persons been alone they would not have acted as they did.
Ever heard of crowd mentality also called herd mentality?
Speaking of unreasonable let us not forget that the Deputy Sheriff is working two jobs. If he is like any of the LEOs that I know that involve a rotating shift of some kind. I work shift work myself and I can tell you that puts a person under more than the usual amount of stress that non-shift workers endure in there day to day life. Add to that a second job regardless of how cushy following around some surveyors may be, it is still going to reduce the amount of sleep the deputy is getting.
Any deputy working overtime or a second job is getting less sleep. Lack of sleep can make one cranky and short tempered (I speak from experience).
As far as the deputy working this side job we don’t know his rank. Is he a corporal or a sergeant? Is he a superior of the deputies that arrest the woman? It could have impact on events. If the officers dispatched to arrest this woman were of inferior rank to the part time security guard they may be intimidated in to taking his side.
You've got to make some really one sided assumptions of bad intent on the part of the utility workers, the off duty deputy, and the two on duty deputies to come to the conclusion that they were intimidating a poor woman who was doing nothing but minding her own business.
I do not intend to make any assumptions as to anyone’s intent. I am merely postulating what may have happened drawing on what I know of human interactions in similar situations. As for minding her own business I don’t recall saying that, I merely stated that she said she was not being threatening or harassing anyone.
It is quite likely that your version of events is true, however given what I know of human nature and given the dearth information I believe that my description of events is nearly as likely.
In Ohio the average starting salary for Deputy Sheriffs was $29,868.87 in 2004.
I don’t know about you but that is not bad for a 20 year old fresh out of community college. If he still lives with the folks that is fantastic first job income.
And for a young kid who just got married having a cruiser to drive to work is a big deal. It means that his new family only needs one car. That is a big bonus to 30K budget.
The details of the deputy's side of the story start part way down page 4 of the incident report.
There are also witness statements supporting her incident report. They are a bit hard to read because they were poorly scanned hand written statements, but they are at least somewhat legible.
It appears that this wasn't really a side job, so much as the sheriff's department contracting out the deputies to provide security. That seems to be a pretty common practice so that the organizations that need extra security pay for the extra police hours that it requires rather than the taxpayer. It appears that the arrangements for her (Deputy Bush) to work with the survey crew were made through the Sheriff's office.
There does seem to be a lot of evidence supporting a charge of disorderly conduct. However, the plea conference statement said that no accusation was to be filed because there appeared to be insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that disorderly conduct had occurred. The charges were dismissed without prejudice, which means they could be refiled in the future. I guess you'll have to come up with your own interpretation of that.
I don’t know about you but that is not bad for a 20 year old fresh out of community college. If he still lives with the folks that is fantastic first job income.
Well, you can't be a police officer in Ohio unless you are over 21 years old, and while that is the starting salary, police officers don't get the kind of raises that people in other careers get their first few years. After a number of years of working, if they manage to get promoted to sergeant they might get up to 40k. How many years? I know two people who are sheriff's deputies, both are in their early 30s. One is getting a four year degree in the hopes that combining that with her years of experience, she might be able to make sergeant. Of course she has to work side jobs as well in order to afford classes. The other is on the SWAT team, he doesn't make crap either, and also has to work side jobs.
So you think it is reasonable that we should expect officers to have to live at home with their parents when they are 21 years old to have a reasonable standard of living.
This for a job that requires wearing a bullet proof vest to work?
This for a job that requires working late night and weekend shifts for no additional pay. Also don't plan on having many holidays off, holidays are often busy times for them.
This for a job that requires them to respond to domestic disputes?
This for a job that requires them to run toward a scene when they hear shots fired rather than running away like everyone else?
This for a job that when everyone else is hiding inside during a really bad storm, tornado, blizzard, they are out working to provide assistance to those who need it?
How much do you think an HVAC guy would make out of community college if they were willing to work the same kind of shifts?
How much do you think a hair stylist makes on average just out of school?
I'm not even comparing them to someone with a technical degree right out of a two year school.
That was only after she was harassing the surveying team for a second day, and after she had tried to scare people by recklessly driving her truck around in the field near them, and speeding by them on the road as well.
This female deputy had absolutely no authority to tell Ms. Worley that she was not able to be on or to move freely about her own property.
She only told her that she couldn't be right were the survey team was, and that was hardly unreasonable considering her actions. She was still free to move about the rest of her property and could have watched from a reasonable distance had she simply not continued to confront them and interfere with them doing their jobs.
When Ms. Worley restated her desire to remain on her property she was told by Bush that “She would see about that”.
It was Ms. Worley that yelled "Well see about that, we'll just see about that", not Deputy Bush.
Actually it is pretty difficult to consolidate your press report on your site with the incident report and the witness reports.
Your press release and statements are very misleading, and just don't match up with the facts very well.
Fighting against abuses of eminent domain is a worthy cause. However, Ms. Worley's actions are not deserving of my support, and I also will not support an organization that tries to gain my support by misleading me about the facts.
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