Sheriff, investigator sued; BCSO refutes allegations

PANAMA CITY — A man who filed suit against the Bay County sheriff and an investigator alleges he was arrested and spent months in jail after deputies violated his constitutional right to freedom from unreasonable search and seizure.

Michael Glass claims in a federal lawsuit that Sheriff Frank McKeithen and Investigator Chad King falsely arrested and imprisoned him in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights, and he claims McKeithen was negligent by failing to drop the charges against Glass when it became clear he was not guilty. The Bay County Sheriff’s Office is not a part of the lawsuit; McKeithen is being sued in his capacity as sheriff.

Marie Mattox, Glass’ attorney, filed the suit Feb. 3, seeking unspecified damages and attorney’s fees. McKeithen and King have not been served with the suit, but officials there are familiar with it, said Maj. Tommy Ford.

According to the suit and records from the case against Glass, McKeithen assigned King to check out a tip about a meth lab at a home on Nebraska Street in 2010. The tip appeared to check out, and deputies with a warrant arrested the two men, one of whom was Glass’ stepbrother, who lived there and seized a large quantity of suspected meth oil in the master bedroom.

Glass had moved out of the home about two weeks before deputies searched it, and there was mail addressed to him in another bedroom. The next day, after he learned about the raid, Glass went to the Sheriff’s Office to see if he could get his property from the house or if he had been implicated in the meth lab.

A deputy told Glass there was no warrant for his arrest stemming from the raid but that Glass “needed” to wait for King, according to court records. Glass was taken to an interrogation room, and after King took his statement he was arrested and charged with principal to manufacture meth, records show.

Ford said King read Glass his Miranda rights, so Glass knew what he was doing when he admitted to King that he had been “smurfing,” or buying pseudoephedrine for his roommate to use to cook meth as his rent payment.

“We disagree, certainly, with the premise of the lawsuit,” Ford said. “We felt that we did have probable cause to detain and then arrest him.”

Glass was in jail from Feb. 6, 2010, until Jan. 7, 2011, when Judge Michael Overstreet determined it was illegal for deputies to hold Glass before he gave his statement because law enforcement had no probable cause he’d committed a crime, and prosecutors dismissed the case.

Mattox, who couldn’t comment on the pending case due to a rule in the Northern District of Florida that prohibits attorneys from speaking publically about pending cases, wrote that King was malicious and displayed “willful disregard” for Glass’ human rights and safety. McKeithen, as “final policymaker,” effectively endorsed the Fourth Amendment violation by failing to take any action against King after learning of the violation, according to the lawsuit.

McKeithen “knew or should have known that (Glass) was not guilty of the crime charged and the charges should have been dropped,” Mattox wrote in the suit.

Mattox is a “prolific” antagonist of the Bay County Sheriff’s Office, Ford said, but 11 of the 13 suits she has filed against the agency since 2003 have been settled in favor of the BCSO. Mattox can file lawsuits making any allegations she wants, regardless of the validity of the allegations, and the Sheriff’s Office has no recourse, he added.

“It doesn’t take much for her to file suit,” Ford said. “That’s why we have lawyers that will vigorously defend our position, and we intend to do that.”