$6 million paid to settle lawsuits over NC deputies’ abuse and killing of unarmed man

The family of an unarmed man killed by a North Carolina sheriffs deputy in a controversial incident — which was the subject of a lengthy News & Observer investigation in 2016 — has settled a lawsuit over his death.

So did five others who claimed they had been injured, had their rights violated or their property damaged by deputies in Harnett County, just south of Raleigh.

“Top law enforcement officials in Harnett County have failed to detect signs that residents were being injured, abused or were having their homes needlessly invaded by sheriff’s deputies,” The N&O reported as part of that 2016 investigation.

All told, the county paid out $6 million Thursday to the various plaintiffs. The settlement was first reported by WRAL. The county did not admit to any wrongdoing, as part of the agreement.

Some of the allegations in the lawsuit echoed what the N&O also reported, that deputies ran roughshod over local residents and faced no repercussions, either from their bosses or the local district attorney. They include:

▪ A deputy came to the wrong house, without a search warrant, around 4 a.m. and killed the man who tried to stop him from coming inside. The deputy’s version of the shooting did not always line up with witness statements or evidence from the scene, The N&O has reported in multiple articles.

▪ A woman who locked her tenant out for coming home high and drunk said deputies helped him break into her house. Deputies then arrested her, not him, and later said they didn’t realize he was intoxicated.

▪ A Vietnam veteran who called the police in a mental health crisis ended up with a broken hip after a deputy responded to the call, then pepper-sprayed him and knocked him to the ground.

▪ Three deputies whose names pop up in multiple incidents all had last names starting with K and referred to themselves as the KKK.

The longtime sheriff who was in charge during those incidents, Larry Rollins, has since resigned. He was replaced by Wayne Coats, who had been a major under Rollins. He said he wasn’t involved in the settlement discussion, noted there was no admission of guilt and defended his deputies.

“Although I was not the sheriff at the time of the incidents, I still support the men that were involved and I believe they acted appropriately,” Coats said in a written statement.

Deadly Force series

The biggest of the scandals was the killing of John Livingston by Nicholas Kehagias — who is also the deputy accused of breaking the hip of the Vietnam veteran, Michael Cardwell.

The News & Observer wrote a four-part investigation and accompanying podcast in 2016 called Deadly Force about Livingston’s death, discrepancies in the official version of events and how other non-deadly incidents in the county showed similar patterns.

Kehagias showed up at Livingston’s home just before 4 a.m., without a warrant and looking for people who did not live there. Livingston refused to let him inside but the deputy forced his way in anyway — to arrest Livingston, saying Livingston assaulted him when he tried to close the door. A scuffle ensued and they wrestled their way to the porch, where Livingston ended up dead with three gunshot wounds.

“He was stronger than me,” said Kehagias, who is 6’2” and 230 pounds, and trained in mixed martial arts with other deputies. Livingston was five inches shorter and 100 pounds lighter, The N&O reported.

The N&O reported that witnesses told a different version of events than Kehagias’ official report. Some evidence, like the medical examiner’s report, appeared to back up the witnesses’ story, The N&O reported. Other evidence was never tested even though official policies said it should have been.

Prosecutors and a local grand jury declined to pursue charges against Kehagias. He resigned from the sheriff’s office not long after, citing “dishonest media” and the lawsuit that the county settled Thursday.

Police psychological screenings?

Robert Zaytoun, a Raleigh lawyer who represented the victims, told WRAL the settlement means his clients will get paid, but not by taxpayers — rather by the county’s insurance, which capped at $6 million and why they agreed on that number. Zaytoun did not respond to a request for comment by The N&O, but he told WRAL that in addition to the money, he hopes Harnett County will implement better psychological screening for its law enforcement officers.

“We need better screening of officers to determine whether they have the mental constitution to honor the badge and not let their badge become subservient to their egos,” he said.

A GOP-backed bill at the North Carolina General Assembly would implement that sort of mental health screening for potential hires — as well as mental health requirements for current officers — statewide, The News & Observer has reported.

The bill, HB 436, passed the House of Representatives unanimously last month. It’s sponsored by Rep. Kristin Baker, a psychiatrist and Republican from Cabarrus County.

Other incidents

The lawsuit does not cover everyone who has told the N&O about bad run-ins with the Harnett County Sheriff’s Office — like John Gill, a retired special forces staff sergeant.

He called the sheriff’s office repeatedly to complain about a deputy in 2014. Soon after, The N&O reported, eight deputies came to his house and he pulled out his phone to start recording. Gill said a deputy punched him in the face, grabbed his phone and deleted the video.

The group of deputies then tased him at least twice and kicked him in the ribs while he lay on the ground, Gill said. They charged him with making harassing phone calls and resisting a public officer.

He provided a photo of himself with a black eye after the incident, and later moved out of state after he could not get local officials to investigate his claims, The N&O reported.

In another case not covered in this lawsuit — because it was already settled through a different lawsuit — The News & Observer proved that the former sheriff, Rollins, did not tell the truth about the killing of an inmate by an officer at the county jail, which the sheriff controls.

Brandon Bethea died in a Harnett County jail cell in 2011. Officials soon put out written reports, but kept the video footage secret. The N&O fought for that footage and eventually got it five years later, in 2016.

It showed that “very little about the accounts provided by Rollins or (detective M.J.) Toler was accurate,” The N&O reported.

Rollins said Bethea’s death was unavoidable and that a deputy at the jail, John Clark, had to use his taser to subdue him during an altercation, The N&O reported, and Toler said Clark was injured and had to be hospitalized.

The video, on the other hand, shows there was no fight and no injuries to anyone but Bethea.

The video shows Bethea standing alone inside the jail, shackled at the legs and hands. He then walks into a cell and is followed by four officers, one of whom unlocks Bethea’s shackles. Clark pulls out a taser and aims it at Bethea, who steps backward. Clark tases him, Bethea goes down, then Clark tases him twice more. The deputies all walk away, leaving him on the ground. Nobody checks on him again for 20 minutes, when they discover he’s dead.

Bethea’s family sued after the video came out, and the county settled their lawsuit for $350,000 and an agreement that the family could never speak about the case again.

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