Federal lawsuit over Forest Hill man's 2020 arrest revived with decision of appeals court
The case of a Forest Hill man arrested in the early days of COVID-19 over a Facebook post is heading back to a federal district court after an appeals court said the Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office wasn't entitled to qualified immunity.
The detective who arrested Waylon Allen Bailey on March 20, 2020, also violated Bailey's First Amendment rights, the court ruled.
Bailey was arrested on a charge of terrorizing after his March 20, 2020, post about the sheriff's office being told to shoot "the infected" on sight. He included a hashtag referencing the Brad Pitt zombie movie "World War Z," and he and a friend joked about the situation in the comments.
The Aug. 25 opinion from the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans stated U.S. District Court Judge David C. Joseph was wrong both to rule Bailey's post wasn't constitutionally protected free speech and that Detective Randell Iles and Sheriff Mark Wood had qualified immunity.
Qualified immunity is legal principle that protects government officials from liability as they work.
"When Iles arrested Bailey, he violated Bailey’s clearly established First Amendment right to engage in speech even when some listeners consider the speech offensive, upsetting, immature, in poor taste, or even dangerous," reads the opinion.
The case is being sent back to district court for further proceedings based on the decision.
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The sheriff's office, in its initial news release, said it was notified about Bailey's post but didn't state how. The court opinion states Iles was assigned to investigate, so he and other deputies went to Bailey's home and arrested him despite not having an arrest warrant.
According to Bailey, the deputies were wearing bulletproof vests and approached him in his garage with their guns drawn. But Iles said in court documents that he walked up to Bailey, introduced himself and shook his hand.
"While Bailey was handcuffed, one of the deputies (not Iles) told him that the 'next thing [you] put on Facebook should be not to f**k with the police,' and the deputies laughed," it reads.
The charge was dropped when the Rapides Parish District Attorney's Office declined to formally charge Bailey. But he sued in September 2020, alleging his First and Fourth Amendment rights were violated and that people viewed him as a terrorist because of the arrest.
Joseph dismissed Bailey's lawsuit in July 2022, but he appealed. Although the district court decision has been reversed, no new court dates have been scheduled yet, according to online records.
This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Court: No qualified immunity for Rapides Sheriff's Office in arrest
