A Thermopolis man is suing the local police department and sheriff’s office in federal court on claims law enforcement agents broke into his home without a warrant, then fought and tased him in 2021.
Douglas Edwards, 53, filed his civil lawsuit Monday in the U.S. District Court for Wyoming against the Hot Springs County Sheriff’s Office, the detention center, Deputies Ken Smith and Casey Freund, as well as Thermopolis Police Chief Pat Cornwell, the police department and Officer Jessica Araiza.
Edwards does not have a lawyer and is representing himself.
He asserts seven claims, which generally break down into the following: that agents violated his Fourth Amendment rights by breaking into his home and removing his guns, that they imprisoned him under false cause and at taser-point, that they battered him, that they trespassed his home and that the agencies failed to train their officers properly.
Mom’s House
The allegations date back to Oct. 13, 2021, when Edwards’ sister (or stepsister) and her husband called for a Hot Springs County Sheriff’s Office deputy to help them get Edwards out of the home of Edwards’ mother.
Deputy Smith responded to the call and met the reporting couple in town. He reviewed a power of attorney contract the sister presented, giving her power of attorney over her mother, according to court documents.
He also reviewed a trespass notice the mother’s attorney had sent to Edwards, which said Edwards was not to be on his mother’s property without written permission from her.
The woman and her husband were worried about Edwards’ mother, the property and the animals living on the property, according to the original affidavit in Edwards’ criminal case.
The couple told Smith that Edwards had taken his mother out of the hospital against medical advice in recent days while the mother was hospitalized for COVID-19.
Citing the trespass notice and power of attorney contract he’d reviewed, Smith, along with the couple asking for the civil standby, went to the mother’s remote home on King Drive outside Thermopolis to tell Edwards he was trespassing there, according to the evidentiary affidavit in Edwards’ original trespassing case.
At the home, Smith found Edwards argumentative and verbally demanding, wearing a gun in his waistband and claiming his mother had rescinded her trespass notice, the affidavit says.
“Edwards began reaching towards his right side where his gun was kept,” wrote Smith in the document.
Edwards would later counter, arguing via his defense attorney that he was actually reaching for a phone in that same area, not his gun.
Smith drew his gun to protect himself, deescalated the situation, grabbed a “less than lethal” weapon and tried to keep Edwards engaged at the door so the man couldn’t retreat farther into the home, says the document.
Then, Smith propped his foot in the door so Edwards couldn’t shut him out.
Edwards started slamming the door on the deputy’s foot, then pushed, shoved and kicked at the deputy’s leg and foot, bruising and scraping him, says the affidavit.
Smith tried and failed to tase Edwards. He got Edwards gun off him anyway, and later found that one round was in the chamber.
Edwards attacked Smith a second time, and Smith had to run out of the home, the affidavit says.
Other court documents say the fight lasted about 13 minutes.
Backup then arrived, and Smith held Edwards at Taser point, while agents handcuffed Edwards and Edwards “actively resisted” arrest, says the document. There were “several more deployments of a Taser” during this time, Smith wrote.
Agents took Edwards to the emergency room for “any injuries that he complained of,” added the deputy.
The Hot Springs County Attorney’s Office charged Edwards with felony and misdemeanor police interference, trespassing and criminal entry. He could have faced up to 12 years in prison if convicted on all counts and sentenced consecutively.
But …
The power of attorney contract was not active at that time, District Court Judge Bobbi Overfield later found in an April 2022 order removing nearly all of the case evidence from the trial pool.
The contract contained a clause saying it would only give power of attorney to the mother’s daughter if two professionals, including one doctor, provided written opinions saying the mother was incompetent. That hadn’t been done as of Edwards’ arrest, and no one had claimed in court that Edwards’ mother was incompetent, wrote the judge.
The trespass notice also wasn’t technically applicable, the judge wrote, since Edwards’ mother had given him permission (albeit not written) to stay at her house, and it was also his home of 40 years.
And lastly, Overfield found that the case prosecutor, Hot Springs County Attorney Jill Logan, could not use any evidence gleaned from the moment that Smith entered the home onward since Smith entered Edwards’ home unlawfully.
Overfield noted multiple times in her order that the prosecutor did not call the deputy to testify at Edwards’ evidence-suppression hearing. If the deputy had testified, he may have been able to show evidence that he had “exigent circumstances” or some pressing reason to enter that home without a warrant.
But since he didn’t testify, the prosecutor couldn’t prove that the entry was lawful, wrote the judge.
Days later in May, Overfield dismissed the criminal case against Edwards, at Logan’s request.
Onward …
More than two years after his criminal case was dismissed, Edwards is now suing the agents involved with it in federal court.
His civil case implicates more people and alleges more details about the fight he had in his home than did the criminal case.
Edwards’ complaint says he went into his room that day to pack a bag to comply with Smith’s order that he get out of there. Other officers and deputies arrived.
Smith and others “tackled (Edwards) to the bed” while Officer Jessica Araiza handcuffed him, the complaint alleges.
They asked Edwards if he could stand, and he said something was wrong with his leg and he couldn’t, the civil complaint says, adding that they left him face-down on the bed for “some time.”
Officers helped him to a couch. Paramedics had a look at Edwards before authorities took him to the hospital and to the jail, says the complaint.
Edwards’ lawsuit complaint notes that he won his evidence suppression argument on Fourth Amendment grounds and that his criminal case was dismissed.
He alleges that he was in jail from Oct. 13, 2021, until he was released on bond Dec. 14, 2021, a stint he calls false imprisonment.
Blunt Trauma
Edwards cites an Oct. 13, 2021, “final radiology report” from Hot Springs County Memorial Hospital, which is not attached to his lawsuit complaint. According to him, the report says he suffered blunt trauma after police knelt on his back.
He has received more than one back surgery “due to this incident,” Edwards alleges. One was to replace or repair a dorsal column stimulator implanted in his back six years prior. He also documented “significant weakness” in his right lower foot and leg area, the complaint says.
The document says the stimulator device in his back shorted out when he was tased in the back.
Edwards’ complaint says he didn’t get the care he needed during his two months in jail, and that he’s had to have surgery to fuse his L2 and L3 vertebrae.
He’s asking for money damages for his expenses, pain and distress, and what he deems an “unwarranted period of incarceration;” for punitive (or, punishing) damages, and for agents of both departments to be re-trained.
The Thermopolis Police Department, Hot Springs County Sheriff’s Department and Deputy Smith did not immediately respond Tuesday to emails requesting comment.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
