PANAMA CITY — A federal lawsuit filed by a man who claims he was falsely arrested by the Bay County Sheriff’s Office after not participating as a confidential informant is headed toward trial.
In the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, 62-year-old Richard Lee Mullinax claims he was falsely arrested and denied medical care after violating an alleged agreement that he would act as confidential informant for BCSO. Mullinax named Sheriff Frank McKeithen, former Gulf County Sheriff Joe Nugent and BCSO investigator Douglas Smith as defendants in the case.
Following Tuesday’s pretrial hearing, the trial will proceed as scheduled.
BCSO Maj. Tommy Ford declined to comment on the pending lawsuit. However, BCSO will present “the other side of the story” during trial, Ford said.
“We strongly disagree with the accusations made in the lawsuit and will vigorously defend our actions in court,” Ford added.
Mullinax, a Gulf County resident, is asking jurors for damages equal to the “mental and emotional distress, impairment of reputation, personal humiliation” and any related harm caused by being re-arrested in Bay County for a June 2010 narcotics charge. Mullinax pleaded no contest to the initial narcotics charge and was placed on probation, according to Bay County Court documents.
During the probation, Mullinax alleged he and BCSO agreed — though not expressly — to a 60-day medical furlough for Mullinax before he served 18 months of probation. Mullinax said he was supposed to act as a confidential informant during that time, according to the lawsuit.
However, after he was released, Mullinax went to Wewahitchka to seek treatment and allegedly suffered a nervous breakdown. Medical professionals suggested Mullinax “Baker Act” himself and seek mental counseling, but instead of going to a mental hospital, Mullinax checked himself into a local hospital.
Mullinax alleged that’s when Nugent, upset he was back in Gulf County, contacted McKeithen and suggested Mullinax be taken back into custody, according to the lawsuit.
“McKeithen and Smith were dissatisfied with (Mullinax) because of his inability to work as a confidential informant because of his medical condition,” the lawsuit states. They “were motivated to seek revocation of the furlough because of such dissatisfaction and because of the influence of Nugent.”
Mullinax was arrested on a violation of probation. He remained in custody and then served 18 months in prison.
He claimed the officers acted with indifference to his medical condition and withheld the much needed medical care of the furlough by taking Mullinax back into custody “despite no cause to do so, and without an arrest warrant or other legal process to do so,” the lawsuit alleges.
A jury trial date is scheduled for Jan. 28, according to federal court records.