Deputy made illegal arrests for months — and his department hid it, Texas lawsuit says
Several Texas officials are named in a lawsuit that accuses a deputy of operating without a peace officer license and making dozens of unlawful arrests and citations for months in 2019.
According to the lawsuit, Delta County officials helped cover up the deputy’s lack of a valid license.
Zach Williamson was hired as a sheriff’s deputy in September 2019, but according to the lawsuit filed in October 2021, his license was already expired.
During September, October and November of that year, Williamson conducted traffic stops, handed out citations and arrested people without a valid license to do so, the lawsuit said.
Former Delta County Sheriff Ricky Smith, along with current Sheriff Charla Singleton, County Attorney Jay Garrett and County Judge Jason Murray are all named as defendants in the lawsuit.
Attorneys for the defendants did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News.
But in court, Delta County officials said “all of their alleged acts or omissions were made in good faith and were objectively reasonable…,” and nothing was done “maliciously, intentionally, with callous or deliberate indifference, knowingly, negligently, or with any other degree of culpability,” WFAA reported.
The lawsuit was filed in connection with an arrest made by Williamson on Oct. 18, 2019, when he drove to the front of a Texas home where Patrick Taylor, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, was parking in his driveway.
“Why did you run from me?” Williamson shouted at Taylor, who insisted he did not attempt to run from the deputy, and had not noticed any police lights.
According to the lawsuit, Williamson aggressively put Taylor in a shoulder lock and slammed him to the ground, where he then put him in a chokehold.
Williamson then arrested Taylor on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, despite not conducting a breathalyzer or blood alcohol test, Taylor said in the lawsuit.
Taylor, a Black resident with a wife and children, said he lost his job because of the arrest and after he was forced to go to a rehab center for months.
The same month Taylor was arrested, a Texas state trooper discovered Williamson was operating unlawfully and was “deeply disturbed,”
The trooper informed Sheriff Smith and his office, but Smith “resisted dismissing Williamson’s issued citations and arrest charges, arguing that all fines should be paid first.”
County Attorney Garrett, when confronted with Williamson’s alleged unlawful behavior, said his arrests were akin to a “citizen’s arrest,” the lawsuit states.
According to the lawsuit, the officials named in the suit “then conspired together to utilize whatever tools they could to cover up the negligent hiring of Defendant Williamson and Defendant Williamson’s unlawful arrests and actions.”
Instead of allowing for Taylor’s release because of Williamson’s invalid license, Taylor was sent him to a rehabilitation facility from November 2019 to February 2020.
Sheriff Smith also changed Williamson’s employment records to indicate he began working at the department on Nov. 8, 2019, instead of in September, the lawsuit said.
It wasn’t until after Taylor spent months in the treatment center and hired a lawyer, that he discovered Williamson was not licensed to arrest him.
“The discovery of the hidden evidence led to the charges against (Taylor) finally being dropped in August 2021 when Defendants County Attorney Garrett and Judge Murray were confronted with this evidence,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit said Williamson, acting without a peace officer license, gave out at least 44 unlawful citations, which added up to at least $6,700 in fines and court fees from those unlawfully stopped by the officer.
After receiving a valid license in November, the lawsuit said Williamson was not disciplined or retrained.
The lawsuit is a class action filed on behalf of all of those who were issued unlawful citations, arrested or detained by Williamson between Sept. 1 and Nov. 5, 2019, which is about 44 people.
The class action is seeking monetary damages, as well as a jury trial.
Delta County, with a population of about 5,200, is located about 120 miles northeast of Fort Worth.
