City of Ellijay and Police Officer Sued in Excessive Force Complaint
News June 22, 2017ELLIJAY, GA – A lawsuit has been filed against the City of Ellijay claiming excessive force by a City Police Officer.
According to the filing by Terry Cantrell, the police attempted to stop his vehicle on June 16, 2015 as he was driving in Ellijay, Ga. As the filing states, he left his vehicle, proceeding on foot. With the officers in pursuit, Cantrell’s lawsuit claims he suddenly threw his hands up to surrender and was tackled to the ground, at which point his head struck the pavement.
Quoting the lawsuit filed, Cantrell claims, “As a direct result of Defendants’ unlawful conduct, Plaintiff has suffered actual physical and emotional injuries, and other damages and losses…”
Cantrell filed his lawsuit against the City of Ellijay, Ellijay Police Chief Edward Lacey, III, and Officer Trevor McClure. Cantrell claims that as he fled police and was tackled, he was unconscious on the ground and was later put on life-flight to Atlanta Medical Center where he claims he was in a coma for 12 days and under medical supervision for 22 days.
Complaints against the City and Officers include “Excessive Force in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, Deliberately Indifferent Policies, Practices, Customs, Training, and Supervision in violation of the Fourth, Fourteenth, and First Amendments, Failure to Render Aid, Breach of Fiduciary Duties, Battery, and Negligence, among others.
Cantrell also claims this is not the first time the Officer has used excessive force in his career.
The lawsuit holds claims for both Punitive Damages and Attorney’s Fees for Cantrell. In a notice to the City of Ellijay, Cantrell’s Lawyer George Weaver, of the Law Office of George W. Weaver, claims the medical expenses amounted over $350,000 and continue to accrue daily. The notice did offer a settlement to the City of Ellijay in the amount of $1,100,000.
15 Comments
Dont run from the Police, Play stupid games and win stupid prizes. Dumbass.
Awesome Story Lonnie.
Why did he run and how were the police to know that he wasn’t armed and dangerous?
Hhmmm? I can’t wrap my brain around the severity of this man’s injuries intoxicated or not. Life flighted, a coma for 12 days, hospitalized for 22 days? Surely Ofcr. McClure must’ve had training that had given him protocol on how to handle a situation without such extreme brutality….maybe not. It just doesn’t make sense to me. While I have always been a super supporter of law enforcement, I have come to know that not everyone can handle that job. I hope some thorough answers are given for everyone’s sake.
I feel if he was running from them that they had every right to do what they did to stop him. He should not have bee running from the officers. People now days are out to give Officers a bad name.
Thankfully, now that the dash cam video has been released it is SUPER clear that Officer McClure certainly did use unnecessary brute force that CLEARLY was unwarranted. It also is very different from his written statement. Cantrell is clearly swaying in an unthreatening stagger when Officer McClure body slammed him to the ground nearly killing him. The absurdity of all of this is that Office McClure is a major liability to not only the City of Ellijay, but to all the citizens he comes into contact with. What would have happened to this man if no other Officers and a dash cam were present? As a citizen I’m highly concerned. I don’t condone criminal behavior in any way. I advocate for the excellent law enforcement that we all depend upon, but I have come to know that not just anyone can handle the authority of being in law enforcement. There was no indication that this man wasn’t suffering from a health issue until the beer cans were discovered in his truck later. In any event, I do think that Officer Dover and Officer Troglin did follow proper protocol. Officer McClure has got to go. What I watched on that video was reckless, brutal and OUTRAGEOUS! Again, if I were on the jury I’d award him every single penny!
Gilmer county is crooked…years ago my husband was arrested by the county and beat up in front of my two middle school age boys and threatened to pepper spray them if they tried to help him. All my husband was trying to do was call his mother and tell her what was happening…they were taking him to a hospital due to threatening to harm himself. Was this force necessary? No…we were going to file a civil suit and Bobby Lee Cook worked against us and kept putting us off until the county got rid of any evidence of the arrest etc. We had the GBI involved and all. He or my children were never compensated in any way for the abuse.
if he didnt have a weapon in his hands he posed no immediate threat. The police have eyes,who cares why he ran.
I disagree. If he had a weapon on his person and in plain sight, he was armed and dangerous.
If he didn’t want his head busted on the pavement he should have stopped trying to elude the police while he was still in the grass. That is where his truck came to rest after trying to RUN from the police in his VEHICLE, while DRUNK and on a SUSPENDED LICENSE… You armchair cops need to give it up. I hope Lacey and the City of Ellijay stick behind the officers. This guy deserves NONE—–0, of the local taxpayer’s money..
Easy to tackle someone while they’re standing still with both hands held straight up.
Where is the video? The last time I checked, it was up and running. I agree with everyone who says McClure used excessive force. Cantrell is small in stature, his hands are up; therefore, the officer had no right to use excessive force. Just being intoxicated and stupid does not give officers the right to kill a human being, which nearly happened in this case.
For those of you who want to keep paying dozens of unnecessary police officers to patrol this town, you will pay the price when Cantrell wins $1 million or more to cover his medical expenses, pain/suffering, and punitive damages. He deserves every single penny. In fact, I hope the case is tried in another town to ensure that he gets a neutral jury.
For those of you who support the officers, remember you, your children, your grandchildren could do something stupid like running from the police under the influence. Would you want McClure or any other officer to use brutal, unnecessary force? I don’t think so! If it is okay, you don’t love your family, so you are not capable of caring about a stranger. THereford, your opinion does not matter!!!
The video is included in the second article which you can find at https://gilmer.fetchyournews.com/2017/06/26/police-report-on-incident-in-lawsuit/
One more thing, I would like to see McClure in the ring with The Rock, no holds barred for five minutes!!! It is easy to beat up on intoxicated, small, handicapped people. Cantrell’s truck has a handicapped tag on it.
Terry is known to all police in gilmer co.they know he’s no threat he didn’t and wouldn’t pull a knife he should get everything he is asking for this charged him for the rest of his life,