(New Orleans) -- Despite some heavy duty legal maneuvers, an appeals court has upheld a verdict that found a Brazoria County Sheriff's deputy used excessive force and arrested him without probable cause.
Deputy Herman Woods was ordered by a Brazoria County jury to pay $500 in damages to the man he arrested, and the Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld that verdict today.
Brazoria County resident Randy Argo filed the lawsuit against Woods and another deputy, but that second deputy was cleared by the jury. The county sheriff and the county were both removed from the proceedings before it went to trial.
Argo's lawsuit asserted that his constitutional rights were violated when Deputy Woods grabbed him by the throat, threw him off his porch and arrested him when deputies were called to Argo's home to investigate a nuisance complaint.
Neither the date, nor the specifics of the police call that brought officers to the home were spelled out in the appeals court ruling.
Brazoria County lawyers tried all sorts of maneuvers to keep the case from reaching a jury, and once the jury reached its verdict, they tried even more tricks in their appeals.
Lawyers for the county pleaded that the deputy had immunity for his actions, they tried to argue that the victim didn't file paperwork in time or used improper technical arguments in moving forward with his case. They also alleged that the county district court made a mistake by failing to throw out the case against the deputy in a procedure called "summary judgment."
Fifth Circuit judges rejected those arguments.
Judges wrote that the evidence against the deputy was, "more than sufficient to support the jury's $500 excessive force verdict."
They wrote that the injuries were substantial enough to require a doctor's visit, and they wrote that, "The force Woods applied to Argo was clearly excessive as applied to the need Argo's actions presented; and that Woods's (sic) actions were clearly unreasonable."
The charges against Argo were dropped after he was hauled to jail.
This appeal is likely the final word in this excessive force case, as the US Supreme Court is unlikely to get a case for $500 with no landmark issues to consider.
For more information: Read the entire ruling
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