PBA Success Stories

Lieutenant found not guilty of criminal charges…

            Lieutenant Willie Burton of the Lafayette Police Department in Alabama faced criminal charges for an off-duty incident involving a juvenile.  Lt. Burton drove a school bus during off-duty hours and constantly dealt with a 15 year old male who was disorderly on several occasions.  During one bus trip the juvenile was so disruptive that Lt. Burton stopped by the police department to get assistance with the juvenile until he could get a petition for his conduct.  Lt. Burton took the juvenile into a room in the department where he held him until he could get some assistance.  The juvenile accused Lt. Burton of hitting him.  Another officer assisting Lt. Burton witnessed the incident, noting that there were no marks on the juvenile.  The mother of the juvenile complained and a warrant was issued for Lt. Burton’s arrest.  He was arrested and placed on leave.

            PBA attorney J. Michael Williams, Sr. was assigned to assist Lt. Burton.  Initially, Lt.  Burton was convicted of harassment.  He appealed the case to the Circuit Court.  Attorney Williams continued to assist Lt. Burton and on March 9, 2006 a jury in the Circuit Court of Chambers County, Alabama found Lt. Burton not guilty.

Officer cleared in pedestrian accident…

            K-9 Officer Scott Hille is employed with the City of North Charleston Police Department.  On October 11, 2004, Officer Hille was responding to a chase in progress.  He was operating his lights and activated his sirens to clear an intersection where he made a left turn.  Still operating his lights and sirens, he could see three pedestrians crossing the road and stop in the median ahead of him.  Suddenly, one of the pedestrians darted out in front of Officer Hille’s cruiser.  Despite his efforts to avoid hitting the pedestrian, the pedestrian struck Officer Hille’s cruiser and died.  The South Carolina Highway Patrol’s MAITE Team arrived on the scene to investigate.

            Attorney David Wolf of Savage and Savage Attorneys at Law reported to the incident scene to assist Officer Hille.  PBA attorney Andy Savage provided representation and monitored Officer Hille’s case.  Recently, Officer Hille was cleared of any criminal wrong doing by the South Carolina Highway Patrol’s MAITE Team.

PBA stands by member all the way to U.S. Supreme Court…

            Cookeville (Tenn.) Police Officer Eric Hall made headlines and newscasts around the country in 2003 when police video showed him shooting a dog approaching him from a car during a traffic stop.  As a result of the publicizing of this incident, Officer Hall and his family received numerous threats of bodily harm.  In response to Open Records Requests, the City of Cookeville released information from Officer Hall’s personnel file which ultimately ended up on a website exploiting the incident.  Included in the material released by the City was detailed information including the names of Officer Hall’s children, his Social Security number, his family’s address and more.  PBA supported Officer Hall in his filing of a lawsuit against the City, the police chief, the city manager, and the state of Tennessee for the release of this information.  PBA attorneys Jerry Farmer and Chuck Ward were authorized to pursue the matter.

            At the trial court level, attorneys Farmer and Ward were successful in blocking the efforts of the chief and city manager to obtain immunity.  However on appeal to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, the chief and city manager were able to obtain immunity, and the court went so far as to state that no constitutional violation occurred in the releasing of information.  Because this matter concerns basic privacy rights of law enforcement officers, PBA authorized a petition to the United States Supreme Court on this matter.  In March 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the petition of certiorari.  However, this case is an example of how far PBA and PBA attorneys will fight in circumstances like what our member faced here.