a federal lawsuit was filed in atlanta where body cam footage shows clayton county police officer
gregory tillman breaking down a woman's door and slamming her to the ground after she refused to
give a chess set back to a man who had moved out all of this happened in front of the woman's son
according to news reports this involved her friend's ex-boyfriend who showed up claiming
that he had left some items there including a remote control and a chess set he called 9-1-1
after she refused to let him inside her home she believed that the man had previously been arrested
on domestic violence related charges involving her friend the newly released body cam footage shows
the officer banging down the door shouting and then using force against this lady the homeowner
her son was in the home at the time of the attack and can be heard on the body cam footage
pleading with the officer hey sir my mom's got health problems sir the video shows this officer
kicking the homeowner's legs out from under her forcing her to fall to the floor while the officer
attempted to handcuff her ultimately the officer was disciplined the county's oversight board first
voted to terminate him but then they changed her mind and voted to give him only a three-day
suspension with some additional training the original incident happened back in 2019 however
just hit the news in the past couple days so i looked up the pending case on pacer
and pulled a couple of the case documents it looks like qualified immunity was denied to
officer tillman by the u.s district court for the northern district of georgia and now the officer
is appealing begging the circuit court the 11th circuit for his qualified immunity i pulled the
amended complaint and some other documents and it reveals a few more details apparently this
guy called 9-1-1 saying that he had been quote staying at the residence and upon the this officer
arriving the homeowner told officer tillman that this man was no longer welcome in her home
and that his belongings had been removed the day before an argument between officer tillman and
the homeowner then ensued she asked for his name and badge number he refused to tell her at her
request the homeowner's son called for officer tillman's supervisor who was now on his way
officer tillman then is alleged to have informed this guy he was trying to get into the house
that he could come and go inside the house as he pleased until properly evicted from the house the
homeowner then announced that she was closing her door until the supervisor arrived instead however
without saying a word officer tillman pushed with his shoulder to prevent the door from being closed
she did manage to get it closed suddenly though officer tillman used his shoulder
to break down the home's front door literally out of its frame forcibly entering the home
he grabbed the homeowner wrenched both of her arms behind her body swept her legs to
the ground like karate kid he then placed a knee on her back and roughly handcuffed her
so now the supervisor arrives the handcuffs now are removed the homeowner is treated by ems she
was cited on charges of misdemeanor obstruction and criminal trespass i'm not sure whether by
the supervisor or by officer tillman those were later dismissed but after the supervisor arrived
he informed this guy he was trying to get in the house that he can't get in the house
without a court order when the supervisor asked officer tillman why he had knocked down the door
tillman responded quote because we had the charge of criminal trespass and because he
feared for his safety because he didn't know what was behind the door an internal investigation
by the agency found that officer tillman lacked probable cause to arrest or charge the homeowner
and that she was within her right to refuse entry to both the officer and the guy looking for his
remote control and chess set as we've discussed many times before law enforcement entries into
our castles are presumptively unconstitutional the only two exceptions are valid consent and exigent
circumstances officer tillman clearly did not have consent nor were there any exigent circumstances
as the federal court pointed out in the order denied qualified immunity which i'll post up at
the blog link in the description here so there's a clear fourth amendment violation for the entry
and you can add another fourth amendment violation for the arrest that took place inside the home
both because it lacked probable cause and also because it occurred in the absence of an arrest
warrant remember even with probable cause a police officer still must have an arrest warrant
if he's going to arrest somebody inside their own home was there also an excessive force
violation as the court pointed out in its order denying qualified immunity officer tillman's
claim that the homeowner posed a threat to him is unpersuasive frankly this is a pretty easy one too
he busted down the door and he attacked her she just wanted to be left alone he had no probable
cause to believe that she had committed any crime whatsoever and while there's always a possibility
that any a homeowner any homeowner could be armed behind their front door that's ever the more
reason not to burglarize their homes as always thanks for watching you'll find more information
in the link below to my blog about this case at thecivilrightslawyer.com if you have a video you
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