THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 18, 1996 TAG: 9609180450
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CURRITUCK LENGTH: 68 lines
An attorney who says she was chased down and threatened at gunpoint by two Currituck County deputies has filed a federal lawsuit against the men and the sheriff.
Tabatha Cruden of Elizabeth City says in the lawsuit that she was terrorized by Barney Miller and Joseph Davidson on the evening of Nov. 20, 1995, in Camden County.
Cruden contends that she came upon an undercover police operation and, while fleeing to safety, was ``wrongfully chased down via a life-threatening high-speed pursuit'' by the deputies in an unmarked police car.
The men tried to ``violently force'' Cruden's car off the road and ``subsequently accosted, threatened, assaulted, seized and terrorized (Cruden) through a purported secret law enforcement mission,'' court papers say.
Neither Miller nor Davidson could be reached Tuesday afternoon for comment.
Cruden and Sheriff Glenn Brinkley both said Tuesday that they preferred not to comment on the pending lawsuit, which was filed Aug. 30 in the Eastern U.S. District Court in Raleigh.
A copy of the sheriff's summons and civil complaint were sent to the Currituck County manager's office this week and released Tuesday to the public.
According to court papers, this is the chain of events that led to the lawsuit:
Cruden was returning home from work around 8:40 p.m. Nov. 20 and stopped at a traffic light at U.S. 158 and N.C. 343 in Camden.
Ahead of Cruden was a black Mustang with tinted windows and Massachusetts license plates. Nothing indicated that the Mustang was a police car.
As Cruden watched, two men ``in ordinary attire'' got out of the Mustang carrying handguns and appeared ready to shoot the occupants of a car in front of them.
Fearing for her life, Cruden turned her car around and began driving toward Currituck County. She also dialed the State Highway Patrol on a car phone.
Miller and Davidson reportedly got back into their car and began to chase down Cruden, trying at some point to force her off the two-lane road.
Cruden eventually reached a Miller Mart convenience store in Belcross, about four miles from where she had turned around. The store was open and people were gathered inside.
Miller and Davidson got out of their car and rushed toward Cruden ``with guns drawn and pointed at (her) head.''
The two men began to shout and threaten the woman, who was still trying to talk to a state police dispatcher.
As the deputies drew closer, Cruden noticed one wore a possible sheriff's department jacket and asked if they were police officers. At first, they did not respond, and then one of the men pointed to a small badge attached to his belt.
The lawsuit, filed by attorneys C. Everette Thompson II of Elizabeth City and J. Michael McGuinness of Elizabethtown, contends that the deputies conduct was malicious and violated Cruden's civil rights.
Sheriff Brinkley ``and Currituck County further ratified the tortious conduct committed by defendants Miller and Davidson by failing to adequately investigate the alleged incident and through the failure to take appropriate corrective action.''
Cruden, who is married to an assistant district attorney, is seeking at least $1.5 million in damages. She is asking for at least $750,000 in compensatory, or actual, damages from all defendants and another $750,000 or more in punitive damages from each individual named in the lawsuit.
The attorney says in the lawsuit that she has suffered ``emotional distress, extreme fright, ridicule, embarrassment, humiliation, loss of esteem, anxiety, trauma, stress (and) lost enjoyment of life.'' She is asking for a jury trial.
KEYWORDS: LAWSUIT by CNB